Giants' new tight end Darren Waller makes strong impression
Raiders tight end Darren Waller warms up before an NFL game against Kansas City on Jan. 11 in Las Vegas. Credit: AP/John Locher
Raiders tight end Darren Waller was finishing up with his physical therapist in Las Vegas on Tuesday when he got a call from Las Vegas general manager Dave Ziegler.
Waller had been traded, to the Giants.
A day after he and his wife returned from their honeymoon, Waller was on a flight to Newark. “It’s been high-octane the last 24 hours, I’ll say that,” Waller said Wednesday in a Zoom call with the media. “I did not see this coming.”
Waller met some of his new teammates at the Giants’ facility. Quarterback Daniel Jones was one of them.
“They just radiated humility,” Waller said. “I really respect that. They’re really stepping into their primes as players. I’m excited to be with them, to be friends of theirs, to do whatever it takes to go where everybody knows this team can go.
“These are guys I’m going to enjoy showing up for work with every day.”
Waller will be expected to be an enormous part of the Giants’ offense. At 6-6, 255 pounds he instantly becomes Jones’ most experienced and effective downfield threat. He spent five seasons in Las Vegas. In his best years, the 2019 and 2020 seasons, he was simply dominant, with a combined 197 receptions, 2,341 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.
At the recent NFL Combine, general manager Joe Schoen described coach Brian Daboll as emphasizing one trait from his pass-catchers.
“If you can separate, no matter how tall, short, wide [you are], if you can separate, we’ll find a way to use them within the offense whether it’s outside, inside or slot,” Schoen said. “That’s one of the unique skills that Daboll has is taking the players and the skill set that he has and developing the offense around their skill set.”
Waller surely fits that mold.
Over the last two seasons, injuries have taken a toll. He played a total of only 17 games in 2021 and 2022. Last year, Waller had 28 receptions for 388 yards and three touchdowns. He was hampered for much of the season by a hamstring injury that limited his explosiveness and ability to stay on the field.
Even in the early days as a Giant, Waller is already imagining his role in the Giants’ offense. Part of that is the creativity of a Daboll offense.
“With Dabs, just seeing [what he did] in Buffalo, you see a high-octane offense, a lot of playmakers, the ball flying around the yard no matter the weather conditions,” Waller said. “It’s an exciting brand of football and you can tell he’s really come here and empowered players.”
Waller is also happy to be reunited with Giants tight ends coach Andy Bischoff, who was also Waller’s position coach during their time together in Baltimore in 2015 and 2016.
Waller was a different guy then. He failed multiple drug tests during his time with the Ravens and was suspended twice, missing four games in 2016 and serving a seasonlong suspension in 2017.
And Waller is a different guy now. He speaks openly about addiction, as he did Wednesday on the Zoom call.
Waller said he had lunch with Bischoff in the Giants’ cafeteria.
“He was in Baltimore before I was suspended and after I was reinstated, on practice squad. He’s seen me in low moments, he’s seen me where I got my foot back in the door and from afar.”
To meet again now “is a pretty cool thing. I’m excited to have him be in my corner to elevate my game and all the games of the tight ends.”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
