Raiders coach Pete Carroll said Friday the club didn't rush into its decision to release defensive tackle Christian Wilkins the day before over a dispute regarding his recovery from a broken foot.
"We took a long time to make our decision," Carroll said. "We watched our way through the whole thing. We're keeping it really clear with what we said. I think there was no clear path to his return, so we just had to move on."
His comments largely echoed the statement issued by the Las Vegas organization on Thursday. The Raiders didn't mince worse with an unusually strongly-worded statement, saying that Wilkins failed to provide a "clear path or plan for future return to play."
Wilkins was injured in Week 5 last season and had some sort of setback in his recovery that took him out of offseason practices and landed him on the physically unable to perform list shortly before training camp opened Wednesday.
Wilkins, 29, was the Raiders' marquee free-agent signing last year, agreeing to a four-year, $110 million contract with $82.75 million guaranteed. The Raiders are attempting to void the remaining $35.25 million of Wilkins' deal, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Thursday.
Wilkins has filed a grievance with the NFL Players Association, per Rapoport.
With Wilkins off the roster, Adam Butler and Jonah Laulu ran first team at tackle this week in practice. Butler started 16 games last season, finishing with 65 tackles, eight for loss and five sacks. Laulu started seven games as a rookie, making 35 tackles, with three for loss and a sack. Both players were in all 17 games.
"This place is about competition," Carroll said. "It always has been. It's wide open. I'm not going to talk about any names right now. If you watch the rotations, we're giving everybody a chance. We're mixing the (starters) with the (backups) all the way throughout just to gather a bunch of information."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
