Tight end Darren Waller has announced his retirement from the NFL after eight seasons 18 minute video On YouTube Sunday. He has informed the Giants of his plans to retire from the NFL, a league source confirmed Sunday.
Waller is leaving at age 31 after just one season with the Giants.
“I have decided to retire from the NFL,” Waller said in the video. “It’s an opportunity to take back the power in my life and make choices for myself.
“I will forever be grateful for the game of football.”
NFL Network was the first to report on Waller’s plans to retire.
“We have the utmost respect for Darren as a person and player,” the Giants said in a statement. We wish him nothing but the best.
Waller’s potential retirement has hung over the Giants as they ponder the decision after his first season in New York.
“It’s definitely the idea of signing up for another trip,” Waller said. The athleticsDan Duggan in early March. “It’s tough, it’s long, it takes a lot. And it’s going to be difficult if you’re not fully bought into every aspect of the process. At the end of the day, if you don’t fully understand men, I feel like you’re doing something wrong. So those are the kinds of things I take into account.”
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The Giants acquired Waller for a third-round pick late in last season’s trade with the Las Vegas Raiders. Despite his long injury history, the deal was initially viewed as low risk and high reward by general manager Joe Shawn. And at first, the move seemed to pay off. Giants quarterbacks Daniel Jones and Waller have been watching in training camp and the preseason, and the duo looked ready to cause problems for defenses.
But the risk element of the deal revealed itself early when ligament injuries popped up before the season started. Waller, who missed 14 games in his two seasons in Las Vegas, missed five games in 2023 with a hamstring injury and didn’t make the impact the Giants hoped for. He finished his lone campaign in New York with 52 catches for 552 yards and one touchdown as the Giants finished the season 6-11.
Injuries aside, Waller has had an up-and-down NFL career since being drafted in the sixth round by the Baltimore Ravens in 2015. In the early years of his career, he took to drug and alcohol abuse. After being suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, he violated it again and was suspended for all of 2017.
The robbers They signed him off the Ravens practice squad in 2018 and in 2019 he had 90 catches for 1,145 yards and three touchdowns. He was better in 2020 with 107 catches, 1,196 yards and nine scores. In the year His 107 receptions in 2020 set a Raiders franchise record, and earned him his one and only Pro Bowl nod.
Despite an injury-riddled 2021 season, his impressive performances in the previous two seasons earned him a three-year, $51 million extension from the Raiders before the 2022 season. Injuries limited Waller to nine games in 2022, and after the season, the Raiders traded him to New York.
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With Waller’s retirement, the Giants will have $2.5 million in dead money in 2024 and $4.9 million in 2025 while saving $11.6 million. That cap impact would have been the same if the Giants had released Waller, allowing the Giants to maintain this. A firm decision rather than forcing his hand.
Waller’s expected departure will make the Giants tight end thinner. Daniel Bellinger will take most of Waller’s snaps after playing 62 percent of the offensive snaps last season. Bellinger finished with 25 catches for 255 yards. Lawrence Kager and Tyree Jackson also return to the tight end, the Giants Jack Stoll and Chris Manhitz added during free agency, although both are considered blocking tight ends rather than pass rushers, and Theo Johnson was taken in the fourth round of the NFL draft.
Like Waller, Johnson has exciting attributes with great size, speed and athleticism. It may be too much to ask of him in Year 1, but the Giants hope he can develop into a legitimate receiving threat.
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(Photo: Ryan Kang / Getty Images)