EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — “Unicorn.” “Locomotive.” “Athletic freak.”
Whether it’s being compared to a mythical animal or high-speed transportation, Giants tight end Darren Waller has been making quite an impression on his new teammates since being traded to New York this spring. In the early days of training camp, all you have to do is keep an eye on Waller for a few minutes to understand why they keep bestowing such flattering monikers on him. You’ll quickly learn “athletic freak” veers more toward truth than exaggeration.
So now think about the defensive players tasked with guarding the 6-foot-6, 245-pound tight end. Think about 5-foot-10 cornerback Darnay Holmes trying to stop Waller from catching a perfectly lofted Daniel Jones pass, 2 feet above Holmes’ head.
Holmes never had a chance to catch up with the tight end as he jumped. On a play like that, the only thing he can do is try to limit the damage and make sure there are no yards after the catch.
Darren Waller easy pic.twitter.com/vvA8vgLuWn
— Talkin’ Giants (@TalkinGiants) July 29, 2023
“There really ain’t much you can dive deep into that, because you look at a guy who’s my height, his height — I’m not a guy who’s afraid of body type,” Holmes said. “But at the end of the day, he got the good genetics.”
Wide receiver Sterling Shepard, who also measures 5 feet 10, just shook his head and called the tight end a “monster” as he brought up the aforementioned catch.
“I was telling D.J. (Jones), I was like, ‘Man, look, that thing would’ve been sailing over my head,’” Shepard said. “That boy Wall came out of nowhere! He looks good, though. He’s a freak.”
But as the cornerback and others on defense will attest, going up against Waller only has its benefits. Giants defenders have been speaking to one another about those rewards.
“I’m getting the best work I’m gonna get,” safety Jason Pinnock said. “I’m not going to face a tight end like Waller any other given Sunday. So this is the best work. He’s the best in the country.”
It hasn’t taken long to recognize that Darren Waller is *different.* That and more in my early camp takeaways: https://t.co/xxeK5aV5SF pic.twitter.com/SCqgcvb3HW
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) August 1, 2023
What makes Waller supreme in their eyes? It starts with Waller’s length; he has a huge catch radius. But it goes beyond that, of course.
“He’s fast because of his stride length,” Pinnock said. “Every other safety or DB who’s probably 5-foot-11-ish has to probably take two whole strides for his one. So you’re playing catch-up the whole time.”
Safety Xavier McKinney noted Waller’s great hands and ability to run routes like a regular wideout. Having to be on Waller puts McKinney on high alert because he knows every play is a chance for Waller to get the ball.
Most conversations about Waller with Giants defenders end the same way. They’re just relieved that, come the season, Waller is on their side.
“Beast,” cornerback/safety Nick McCloud said. “There’s no other way to describe it. It’s just good work for everybody. Corner, nickel, safety — it’s good work for everybody. He moves like a receiver, but he’s big like a tight end. We definitely want him on our team rather than going against him.”
Darren Waller makes safeties look so tiny pic.twitter.com/BSKaryunB9
— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) July 30, 2023
The feeling is mutual, and Waller is embracing his new opportunity.
Early in his tenure in New York, Waller praised the sense of empowerment he was feeling; with the Giants, there is an ability to add personality and offer input to coaches. Now, in the initial days of training camp, that open dialogue with coach Brian Daboll and others on the staff is translating to the field.
Waller said he has a “certain freedom on certain routes to where it doesn’t have to be super rigid or a way that it’s drawn up in the playbook.” He’s learning from the coaching staff’s history with tight ends like Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce, and he’s able to offer input from his experience.
Take how Waller might set up on a route in a third-and-short situation. The playbook will have its guidance, but Waller is permitted to improvise a bit.
“You can put your own little sauce on it and get open,” Waller said. “It’s encouraged as long as the fundamentals are there and your knowledge of what the defense is doing and your timing and the concept is there. So, it’s little things like that. It’s not anything drastic, but it’s just really small details of a route that you probably can’t even notice.”
The nuances may be imperceptible, but Waller’s impact in just the first week of camp definitely is. He’s been a favorite early target of Jones’, and he owns a share of the team lead, with Darius Slayton, in receptions during 11-on-11 with 10.
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The biggest key for the Giants this season will be keeping their star tight end healthy. Waller has missed 14 games over the past two years due to various injuries, most recently to his hamstring. The coaching and training staffs are cognizant of Waller’s injury history, and they’ve developed a plan they believe will keep him healthy. It might involve fewer reps or a day off, but Daboll said the “three days on, one day off” practice schedule is conducive to players taking care of their bodies.
If their plan works, the potential impact of Waller’s assimilation into the offense is tantalizing to imagine. There likely will be a lot more tight-end-heavy packages — they were 16th in multi-tight-end looks last year — which should make it harder on defenses to know whether a run or pass is coming.
Daniel Bellinger, who played 72 percent of the offensive snaps during his rookie season, and Lawrence Cager have been getting work with the first unit as the Giants experiment with multi-tight-end personnel this summer.
“Him making plays like that (a leaping catch) does nothing but open things up for everybody else,” Bellinger said. “It opens up so many possibilities that (offensive coordinator Mike Kafka) can call, that Dabes can call. I think it’s a lot of fun ’cause now we have plays that there’s no really limit to them. We can move guys around. We can get guys in a certain spot, and it’s like, ‘OK, the defense is giving us this look, let’s switch, and now a defense doesn’t know what to do.’”
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Bellinger’s already been working on how to best complement Waller. He has studied various tight ends and has been paying special attention to how ex-Raiders tight end Foster Moreau previously worked with Waller in two-tight-end sets. While specific personnel will come with certain on-field situations, Bellinger’s been picking Waller’s brain for how he approaches routes and thinks about plays.
Waller is happy to help in any way he can. He’s also happy to take the compliments from the locker room, but he’s more concerned about what he brings to the team.
“I guess it’s just for my size and my weight, and I guess the way that I run and the multitude of routes that I try to be comfortable running, and a lot of guys don’t necessarily do that,” Waller said. “But it’s just coming in with a mindset of, ‘I don’t want to be limited in any part of my game.’ Whatever they want to line me up and run at, I want to be able to do that and be effective at it and not just be like, ‘Oh, man, I’m not really that good at that,’ or, ‘I can’t do that.’ I want to be able to do everything and just present myself as a viable option to the quarterback every time I run a route.”
(Photo: Rich Schultz / Getty Images)
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