Raiders new regime has sent an undeniable message with Christian Wilkins move

No NFL franchise needed a reset of its culture this offseason more than the Las Vegas Raiders. "Just Win, Baby" and a "Commitment to Excellence" have become fossilized phrases of a bygone, and far more successful, era for the Silver and Black.

The culture reset was firmly set in place when Pete Carroll was hired as the Raiders' head coach. A culture of competition, rooted in his successful run at USC and which he carried to his run as the Seattle Seahawks' head coach, would be front and center from the start.

General manager John Spytek has been in parallel with Carroll regarding wanting players who love football and want to compete. While these are all the appropriate cliches, they fade from being cliches when they're put into actual practice.

All offseason, there had been speculation about the health of defensive tackle Christian Wilkins after a Jones fracture in his left foot limited him to five games last season, the first year of the four-year, $110 million contract the previous regime signed him to. The idea that he needed a second surgery was out there, and a photo showing him back in a walking boot surfaced in June.

Raiders new regime sends unequivocal message with Christian Wilkins decision

All along, Carroll only acknowledged the obvious uncertainty of the situation. Wilkins opened training camp on the PUP list, then things quickly came to a head.

On Thursday, the Raiders released Wilkins in a stunning move. They voided the $35.2 million in guaranteed money that remains in his contract on June 4, citing a disagreement regarding his rehab process, as team doctors said he needed a second surgery, which Wilkins reportedly refused.

Wilkins filed a grievance regarding the voiding of that guaranteed money on Thursday, the end of the 50-day window during which he could do so. Not coincidentally, the team made the move to release him officially the same day.

Now, a legal battle is coming, and as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk noted, there doesn't seem to be specific language in Wilkins' contract regarding how to treat an injury. He is within his rights to find a doctor who says he doesn't need another foot surgery and follow that diagnosis, even if the Raiders' doctors say he does need another surgery.

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Carroll spoke to the media after Friday's practice, and the first question to him was, of course, about Wilkins. The response was about as expected, mostly deferring to the statement the team put out there.

"It took a long time to make our decision,” Carroll said. “We watched our way through the whole thing. We’re keeping really clear with what we said. I think there was no clear path to his return, and so we just had to move on.”

To their credit, the assembled media got the hint regarding anything particularly deep about the move to cut Wilkins, knowing Carroll wasn't going to go there.

Regardless of how the grievance turns out, and the financial implications the Raiders hope to avoid but could end up saddled with anyway, the new regime has sent a clear message with the move to cut Wilkins.

Carroll and Spytek were brought in to set a new tone, and they clearly won't be afraid to make tough decisions. So if there are questions about a player's commitment, neither their contract status nor their draft status will save them from being deemed unable to be part of these Las Vegas Raiders.