The New York Giants sent a third-round pick (No. 100 overall) in last year’s draft to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for former Pro Bowl tight end Darren Waller.
The Giants took a shot that Waller would be able to get through an entire season injury-free and give them an impact player at tight end.
It didn’t quite go as well as planned. Waller played in just 12 games, starting 11, and caught 52 passes for 552 yards and just one touchdown. At times he looked like the old Waller. At others, he just looked old.
Recently, Waller told reporters that he was contemplating retirement at age 31. He is still in the process of making up his maid about his future.
“I’m undecided at the moment,” Waller told The Athletic. “It’s really the idea of signing up for another journey. It’s tough, it’s long, it requires a lot. And if you’re not fully bought into every single thing of the process, it’s going to be tough. I feel like at the end of the day, you’re doing guys a disservice if you’re not all the way in. So those are the kinds of things I’m taking into account.”
If Waller calls it quits he will be owed a base salary of $10.5 million which accounts for a cap hit of $14 million. If he opts to retire, the Giants will clear $6.2 million in cap space but be left with a dead cap hit of roughly $7.9 million.
“The expectation is he’ll be back,” general manager Joe Schoen said of Waller after the season.
Schoen was asked if he would make the trade again after what he saw of Waller last year.
“I would do it again,” Schoen said. “I would do it again with Waller. I mean, you guys saw him this spring, you saw him in the summer. Unfortunately, he had the injury before the Dallas game. Again, he was still a productive part of our offense when available. I would do that again every day of the week.”
Either way, the Giants will likely be seeking additional options at tight end this coming week in free agency and possibly in April’s draft.
Big Blue will also have a new tight ends coach this season — former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Tim Kelly — who could change the way the team uses tight ends in their scheme.
