Raiders Release Christian Wilkins Over Rehab Dispute

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00:00Adam Schefter sent a tweet out yesterday. ESPN sources Raiders are releasing defensive tackle

00:05Christian Wilkins with a designation of terminated vested veteran. His time in Las Vegas is now over

00:11due to how Wilkins treated the rehab from his foot injury he suffered last season. The Raiders

00:16voided the remaining $35.2 million of guaranteed money left on Wilkins' contract last month and

00:23today. Wilkins filed a grievance with the NLPA. This was shocking news because from a Miami Dolphins

00:29perspective, they would have loved to have kept them here, but there was just bigger money in

00:32Vegas. A game-changing defensive tackle is one of the most important positions in professional

00:38football. The fact that he went there for a lot of money and I guess just wasn't working hard or said,

00:43you know, hey, I got paid. Now everything is okay. I'll just half-ass a lot of things, Joe, just to

00:49say that. I mean, what happened in Vegas? And my goodness, that's a lot of money to eat and there's

00:54going to be a big fight over this. I mean, $35.2 million out the window. And yes, the only ones

01:01who are going to get rich here, Donnie, are the attorneys arguing for both sides. But the reality

01:06of this situation is he played five games for them last year and he had a fracture in his foot.

01:12And the team wanted him to get surgery to repair it. His camp said, we are not having surgery.

01:20We're going to try the rehab course. We're going to go that direction. And those two sides have been

01:27added. So obviously when word comes out that he's still not going to be able to play, the rehab is

01:33he's doing other things outside of rehabbing and the work ethic is not there. The team at that point

01:39is like, yeah, no, we're done here. Sorry. You should have gotten the surgery like we wanted you to do in

01:46order to fix it. And we wouldn't be having this problem, but his camp wanted to go the rehab route

01:51and he's just not doing it. And that's a problem at $35.2 million. Yeah. When the employer is like,

01:57I'm paying you $100 plus million to play for my football team. And if we give you bad advice on

02:03surgery, number one, you're going to get paid. Number two, you could probably see the team doctor

02:07and make even more money. And hopefully it's not catastrophic and you go on and live your life

02:11and you'll be just fine. But you tell your employer, Hey, look, they recommended surgery

02:15and this rehab doc. And you say, I'm going to be fine. Like back in the days where Dante Culpepper

02:19was like rehabbing his knee and they had him working out at like a Walmart parking lot. It's

02:23like, what are we actually doing at this point? Is this legitimate rehab and what's going on? Because

02:27that investment that they paid a lot of money for, they want to return on it. And the last thing

02:31they want is you didn't do what we told you and you expect to get paid even more money. You're out of

02:35here. Now flip that over to a Raiders perspective. I don't have high expectations for the Raiders,

02:41whether or not Wilkins is going to be on the roster or not. But I do have an appreciation for

02:44Pete Carroll comes to town. Tom Brady's the new sheriff in charge. One thing they're not going

02:48to put up with is this type of nonsense because that spreads Joe around the locker room. Ah,

02:53did you see last year Wilkins got that big deal? He don't even show up to rehab at this point right

02:57now. That's not going to allow it. That's the sign that it's a healthy franchise. They weren't going

03:02anywhere this year for me and say, you know, one of our best players that we think could

03:05possibly play. We don't want them around anymore. That's not the team concept. Appreciate that from

03:09the Vegas Raiders. Listen, you got to do it. And this is the time of year to do it. And it's,

03:14listen, we also know that the players know that Wilkins might be, shall we say, you know,

03:20mailing it in here on the rehab, because if I'm Wilkins too, at this point in my career, like,

03:25hey, listen, it's great. And look, I'll be ready for the season. There's no point in me hanging out

03:31and camping. Well, that's not going to work with a new regime. They are a new attitude,

03:36new head coach. You mentioned Tom Brady's influence. I mean, you know, you're going to

03:41be that poster child of this is no longer going to be acceptable in Raider Nation.

03:46Okay.

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