The Las Vegas Raiders trading Darren Waller this offseason was a surprise to many, and it seems that decision to move on from the former Pro Bowler was based on two specific fears they had about him going forward.
It wasn’t long ago that Darren Wallers seemed to have finally reached his potential and was viewed among the best tight ends in the sport. In 2020 he pulled in 107 catches for 1,196 yards and nine touchdowns. All of those numbers were career highs and followed a strong showing the year before.
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Unfortunately, the sixth-round pick in 2015 was unable to keep up that level of production in the following seasons. Mostly due in large part to injuries limiting him to just 18 games the last two years. His decline in performance only became more troublesome because the Las Vegas Raiders gave him a massive three-year, $51 million contract before the 2022 season.
Las Vegas Raiders record (2022): 6-11
Playing in just nine games (six starts) last season seemed to push the organization towards a crossroads on Waller. Continue on with the player they invested a lot of time and money into, or end the relationship and ship him out of town. The latter option was what the team went with and they traded him to the New York Giants in the spring.
- Darren Waller stats (2022): 28 catches, 388 yards, 3 touchdowns
There has been a lot of speculation as to why the Las Vegas Raiders made that bold decision, and it seems like most of it was dead on. Last week, Pro Football Network league insider Adam Caplan reported that “some in the club got wary of Waller missing significant time over the last two seasons” and it was key in their decision to trade him to New York.
Caplan also added that a “pro personnel source” informed him that for a player with injury concerns like Waller, his age (30) was also a reason to assume those issues won’t get better and is often cause for most teams around the league to move on from a player. Meaning if Waller was 26, the team may have held on to him because of his immense upside, but the combination of his injury woes and age was too much of a risk for the Raiders front office going forward.
The Las Vegas Raiders replaced Waller with Notre Dame star Michael Mayers in the second round of April’s NFL Draft. It will be interesting to see which team gets better TE production in 2023 and beyond.