{"id":823746,"date":"2026-03-20T20:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/823746\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T20:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:35:26","slug":"christian-wilkins-to-play-in-2026-has-interest-from-26-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/823746\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Wilkins to play in 2026, has interest from 26 teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/adamschefter\/status\/2035075513715155049?s=46&amp;t=XovjDziWcTvaI_Vu3HxrxA\" rel=\"nofollow\">According to ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter<\/a>, 26 teams have reached out to former Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Christian Wilkins\u2019 camp in anticipation of his return to the NFL in 2026. Per agent David Mulugheta, by way of Schefter, Wilkins is still rehabbing a foot injury that he suffered in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Last July, the Raiders voided $32.5 million in guarantees on Wilkins\u2019 deal, as he did not follow their medical advice following a Jones fracture injury. According to reports, the Raiders believed that Wilkins needed surgery, which he refused. As far as we know, Wilkins is still attempting to rehab this foot injury without surgery, and his camp has been unable to claw back the $32.5 million that he lost over this decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Green Bay Packers have the cap space to swing a Wilkins signing, and Wilkins won\u2019t count as a compensatory free agent, meaning he won\u2019t offset a draft selection if the Packers sign him. Wilkins is more of a three-technique, which in the Packers\u2019 new 3-4 scheme would be a 3-4 defensive end, than a nose tackle, but the team is in desperate need of defensive linemen. At the moment, Green Bay\u2019s projected 3-4 defensive ends for the 2026 season are Devonte Wyatt (who should be ready to return from his season-ending ankle injury by the start of training camp) and the recently-signed Javon Hargrave (who, to be fair, was played out of position as a 3-4 nose tackle last season).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For what it\u2019s worth, Mulugheta is an Athletes First agent, the same agency that reps both head coach Matt LaFleur and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. The Packers have had strong ties with Athletes First, who also represented Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews in the past. Mulugheta alone represents Jordan Love, Micah Parsons, Xavier McKinney (and previously Kingsley Enagbare and Malik Willis) on the Packers\u2019 2026 roster. Other Athletes First players in Green Bay are Aaron Banks, Lukas Van Ness and Josh Whyle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Wilkins played one year for the Raiders after playing his rookie deal with the Miami Dolphins. He was selected 13th overall in the 2019 draft out of Clemson and made 77 starts for the Dolphins. His on-field stretch with Las Vegas lasted just five healthy games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter, 26 teams have reached out to former Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Christian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,9684,2702,2514,2513,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-823746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-green-bay-packers-free-agency","12":"tag-green-bay-packers-news","13":"tag-greenbay","14":"tag-greenbaypackers","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116263421586680101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}