Giants Darren Waller Informs Giants He Is Retiring
New York Giants tight end Darren Waller is calling it a career.
After months of weighing his options, Waller, whom the Giants acquired during the 2023 off-season from the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for a third-round draft pick, is hanging up his cleats after eight NFL seasons, two with the Ravens, five with the Raiders, and one with the Giants.
Waller, who has been working on a music career, finishes his career having appeared in 86 games with 63 starts. He has caught 350 balls out of 501 targets for 4,124 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Originally a sixth-round draft pick by the Ravens in 2015 out of Georgia Tech, the 6-6, 238-pound Waller had his best seasons for the Raiders in 2019 and 2020, posting back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving campaigns. In 2019, he finished third in the NFL AP Comeback Player of the Year Voting after overcoming a substance abuse problem in the earlier part of his career.
In 2020, Waller made his first and only Pro Bowl after posting a career-high 1,196 receiving yards with the Raiders.
Unfortunately, the wheels fell off the wagon for the big athletic tight end thanks to a series of lower body injuries that, from 2021 through 2022, his final two years with the Raiders, limited him to 20 games.
He was traded to the Giants during the 2023 off-season, but his injury issues popped up yet again, as he missed five games.
In his one season with New York, Waller appeared in 12 games with 11 starts and caught 52 balls out of 74 targets (the most on the team) for 552 yards and one touchdown.
The Giants, who confirmed the transaction, said in a team statement: “We have great respect for Darren as a person and player. We wish him nothing but the best.”
The Giants, who restructured Waller's contract after acquiring him from the Raiders in 2023, will save $11.625 million on the transaction, with $2.458 million in dead money hitting this year's cap and $4.917 million of dead money hitting the team's 2025 salary cap.
PATRICIA TRAINA
Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for over three decades for various media outlets. She is the host of the Locked On Giants podcast and the author of "The Big 50: New York Giants: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants" (Triumph Books, September 2020). View Patricia's full bio.