Insider sheds light on Christian Wilkins situation

One of the mysteries surrounding the Las Vegas Raiders’ offseason has been the health of defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.

Wilkins was one of the big prizes of the 2024 offseason, and then-general manager Tom Telesco locked down the defensive lineman on a four-year, $110 million contract. However, the promise Wilkins brought to the Raiders defense was short-lived, as a Jones fracture in his foot brought his first season to an end after Week Five. A matter of even greater concern is that Wilkins has yet to participate in the Raiders’ offseason program, and reports are beginning to circulate about his availability for the upcoming season.

Fortunately, fans now have somewhat of a clearer idea of what Wilkins is going through.

The latest information on Wilkins confirms an expected outcome.

On the “Vegas Nation” podcast, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore provided more details on Wilkins’s injury, including how he suffered it and his initial reaction.

“So that [initial] injury, come to find out, he hurt himself earlier in the game and he played through it,” Bonsignore said. “He played through it until they said, ‘You got to come off the field. No more.'”

Clearly, the Raiders realized something was wrong, prompting them to intervene before Wilkins hurt himself any further. The team and player tried to work on a timeline where he would be ready to come back during OTAs, but a setback pushed the recovery further back.

“He gets the surgery the very next day. Literally, the very next day, which is kind of unusual. … Come to the end of the season, he was on target to come back,” Bonsignore said. “It was basically a clear path for him to be ready for OTAs, minicamp, all of those things.”

“Obviously, he suffered a setback. … The original injury was an 8-12 week injury recovery,“ the insider continued. “He could have re-broken the original injury, or there’s usually a screw that’s inserted for this type of injury, that could have broken. In either case, it still remains an 8-12 week rehab.”

While details surrounding when Wilkins will be ready to return to physical activity are still unclear, at least there is now some clarity on what happened.