Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce is certainly happy to now have Christian Wilkins on the team’s defensive line.

The former Clemson star signed a massive four-year, $110 million deal ($84.75 million guaranteed) with the Raiders when free agency got underway last month, and Pierce is pumped about the addition of Wilkins.

Pierce spoke recently about how he sees Wilkins impacting Las Vegas’ D-line.

“Makes life easier for us as coaches, I’ll tell you that,” Pierce said, via Raiders.com. “When you get good players, makes life easy. But what it does along with other gentleman that we brought back, John Jenkins and Adam Butler, I mean a lot of depth to that D-line room. We want to be strong there, that’s going to be our strong point of our team. As you can see, I think from one to 10, I feel really good with those guys.”

Wilkins had a career year with the Miami Dolphis in 2023, tallying 65 total tackles (10 for loss), 23 quarterback hits, two passes defended, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries to go with nine sacks – double his previous career-high of 4.5 sacks in 2021.

Added Pierce of Wilkins:

“Christian, the energy, personality, love for the game. And now we got somebody on the front with Maxx Crosby, full blown effort for 60 minutes, and that’s what we’re looking for. And I think for us to get a player of his caliber, the way he’s played over his entire career, it’s going to be a blessing for Raider Nation.”

Wilkins amassed 355 tackles (43 for loss) and 20.5 sacks across his five seasons with the Dolphins (81 games, 77 starts).

The 6-foot-4, 310-pounder was drafted by Miami in the first round (13th overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft following his time at Clemson from 2015-18, when he was a three-time All-American, three-time All-ACC selection and two-time national champion.

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