The Las Vegas Raiders recently traded Darren Waller to the New York Giants and the star tight end was reportedly blindsided by the deal.
He may have not seen it coming, but his fate was sealed by something he did during the 2022 regular season.
This week on The GM Shuffle, NFL insider Michael Lombardi shared a story on Waller’s lack of commitment to rehabbing a hamstring injury that caused him to effectively miss more than half of the season.
“This is about durability. This is about ‘I’m getting ready to pay you $11 million, we redid your contract and on the bye week, instead of rehabbing, you went home for four days and accrued the fines. On the bye week, you went home and just didn’t talk to anybody. Just went home and left a message saying ‘hey, fine me. I don’t care. I’m going to southern California…’
Ok. Go ahead, but does that tell you as a coach that would want to win? Where does that come from? These are the things that people don’t understand. It’s always the players are right, the coaches are wrong and I’m not saying this because my son is the coach there.”
Head coach Josh McDaniels recently said that the team had plans for Waller to be part of the team for a long time. The tight end just got married and has established roots in Las Vegas. His new wife is Kelsey Plum, who is a star player on the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA.
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“I did not see this coming,” Waller said in his introductory press conference with the Giants. “I was getting ready to just do everything I could to make myself available for the Raiders and get ready for everything that was going to start in mid-April. It caught me off guard, but it’s the nature of the business.”
Regardless, Waller is a Giant now and both sides have moved on.
There was a time when Waller looked like one of the two best tight ends in the NFL, but the past two years have seen him miss a combined 14 games due to injury.
He has a chance to show the Raiders they made a mistake with his play in New York.
He tallied 28 receptions for 388 yards and three touchdowns over nine games in 2022.
