The crazy thing about most Tight Ends is they either played a different position on the football team before making that transition to Tight End or they didn’t play football, to begin with. Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates are perfect examples. Tony in my opinion is the greatest tight end I’ve ever seen. Antonio Gates was no slouch either. I’m here to talk about Darren Waller now. At Georgia Tech, he was a wide receiver. Before signing with the Raiders in 2018, the Baltimore Ravens drafted Darren with the 204th overall pick in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Today, the Raiders announced that they have extended their star tight end. A three-year contract extension worth $51 million in new money.
He’s such a force when he’s on the football field. Darren is a top 4 tight end in the league when he’s healthy. Whenever I think of labeling players as that matchup nightmare, he’s one of the first players that comes to my mind. Darren is 6’6 and weighs 265 pounds and he’s such an athletic force. If you don’t have two defenders in his direction, he will beat you each time. Trying to defend him one-on-one I feel is an insult. People always say a certain player is in another position stuck in the body of the position he’s playing. To further elaborate, many will say that Darren is a Wide Receiver stuck in the body of a Tight End which is true because he’s a former wide receiver. To be a bigger player, he’s excellent when it comes to creating space and getting open. He does everything you ask of him. Darren makes the contested catches and he sets up defenders because he knows how quick he can be and uses that to his advantage.
The Raiders use him no matter the circumstance whether it’s first, second, or third down. Some say you can be physical with him, but he can handle that or you can give him space and he’ll still hurt you.
Darren is such a key piece of the Raiders’ offense. He’s that one guy you target in the red zone because of his height. Outside of football, I’ve learned a lot about him and how he overcame his addiction to drugs. It’s always great to see someone overcome the obstacles that life throws their way. I’m happy the Raiders extended him.
