New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones and tight end Darren Waller have only been working together for a few short months but they’ve already begun to bond and develop a notable chemistry.
The two have spent extra time working together both at team facilities and away from them, and Waller says the process has played out sans ego. He recently praised Jones as talented and humble while appearing on the Giants Huddle Podcast.
“It’s been awesome,” Waller said of working with Jones. “We’ve been putting extra sessions in whenever we got the time. If it’s on the weekend, if it’s on an off day, like, it’s been really cool to pick his brain and see how he wants things done. Some (things) are a little different than what I’m used to, some are a lot of the same, you know, it’s just different terminology, so getting to work with him has been really easy.
“We’ve been able to grow together, come back to each other with no type of ego and be like, hey ‘maybe do this,’ or ‘I like the way you did that keep doing that,’ so it’s been open dialogue. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Because some of Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka’s terminology is similar to what he had with the Las Vegas Raiders, Waller has been able to pick up the Giants’ offensive system quickly.
“I’d like to say, since Daboll has similar terminology to where I came from, from Josh McDaniels, there are a lot of similar terms, a lot of similar concepts. So it gives me a little bit more comfort,” Waller said.
“There are certainly new things here, and you have to learn the new ways of how they do things and not just keep your old terminology or things you’ve learned before, so that helps a little bit, but it is challenging as well. Especially if you want to line up in a lot of different spots and you’re somebody that, you know, wants to run a bunch of different routes so a defense can’t gameplan for you per se, you’ve got to learn everything. . . And it’s a challenge, but I love a challenge.”
So long as Waller is able to stay healthy, expectations are that he’ll help Jones and the Giants’ offense reach the next level in 2023.
