The ink was barely dry on Christian Wilkins‘ four-year, $110 million contract when things started going sideways. One year in, the Raiders pulled the plug, just like that. It wasn’t about production. And for a moment, it seemed that it wasn’t about the locker room drama either. At first glance, it looked like a brutal business decision. But under the surface, whispers grew louder: Wilkins was rehabbing a foot injury his own way, against the team’s wishes.
The Raiders’ medical staff had pushed for surgery. Wilkins, after getting second and third opinions, refused. That standoff quietly strained the relationship. Meanwhile, the Raiders, always conscious of their cap health and locker room tone, didn’t wait around. By releasing him, the Raiders avoided coughing up $35.2 million in guarantees. To fans, it felt like a cold move. To the front office? It was clean-cut cap preservation.
But just when everyone thought this was another classic injury dispute gone corporate, Adam Schefter came along and peeled back another layer of the story. Amidst all the chaos after Wilkins’ release, Schefter unfolded the Raiders’ locker room drama. “From speaking to people inside the locker room, I think what everybody’s dancing around and tap tiptoeing around is the fact that when you speak to people there inside the locker room, they say that Christian playfully went to kiss a teammate on top of his head and those same people said that that player took offense to it,” Schefter reported on The Pat McAfee Show.
“So that’s what everybody’s been dancing around and tap dancing around an incident in the locker room where he allegedly playfully kissed a teammate on top of his head that teammate felt offended by it. And that’s what a lot of this talk and speculation that people have just been floating around out there is about.”
“From speaking to people inside the Raiders locker room…
They say that Christian Wilkins playfully went to kiss a teammate on the top of his head..
They say that player took offense to it and that’s what everybody has been dancing around”@AdamSchefter #PMSLive https://t.co/das6W3HesB pic.twitter.com/MGfjATaiNh
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 28, 2025
This is a developing story. Stay Tuned!
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