Tom Pelissero: Why Darren Waller Ended His Retirement to Play for the Dolphins I The Rich Eisen Show

Joe Shane, he must have had a uh a surprising Oh, he probably saw it coming, but uh talk about getting any draft capital dropped in your lap for Darren Waller out of the blue, right? Like that that had to please the Giants clearly, you know, Waller’s not playing for them anymore. And and so what’s the Darren Waller backstory with him winding up with the Dolphins as the the tight end of choice to fill the John Smith void? Tom, I think this is really fascinating, Rich. And if there were any place that Darren Waller was going to play, it was going to be Miami. In fact, my understanding is Darren Waller and Drew Rosenhouse talked to the Giants last week. And that was the message, which was, listen, he’s either going to stay retired or he’s going to play for the Dolphins. He really wants to go and play in Miami. And to Joe Shane’s credit, he didn’t drag this out and hold him over the coals. He worked toward a common sense solution that was going to be able to get something for Darren Waller in the form of a sixth round pick in next year’s draft. And the Dolphins get a low-risk flyer on a guy who’s reunited with the coach that he had the best years of his life with. Frank Smith, who’s now the offensive coordinator with the Dolphins, was the Raiders tight ends coach when Darren Waller was a monster for a couple years there. He was the one of the best tight ends in the entire NFL. One of the most unique weapons in terms of just how big and physical and fast and the wingspan and all those things. He was really, really good. And part of that was he had this unique connection with Frank Smith. We all know the Darren Waller story in terms of the past struggles with drug addiction, his career, his life. um very much being on the ropes, coming back and showing that he could be, you know, this caliber of a player there. Those two, Frank Smith and Darren Waller are like brothers. They are that close. And so when Darren Waller began to have that feeling like maybe I would want to give this another shot. He wasn’t going to go back to the Giants. The only place he was going to go was Miami. Now you’re Mike McDaniel and yes, he he’s 33 years old. Darren Wallers turns 33 in September. He didn’t play last season. There’s all kinds of reasons that I understand for people to be skeptical of this, but everything I’ve been told is he is mentally and physically refreshed. He’s in a good place. All of a sudden last year, the Dolphins offense through the course of the season, both because of what they were dealing with at quarterback when Tua was out, the offensive line issues, Toron Armstead being beat up, they basically went from this fastpaced wide openen vertical strike offense, Rich, to like a ball control style of offense. Well, now all of a sudden, if you get something close to the Darren Waller that we’ve seen at his peak in the past, that is a big detached weapon that you can line up inside, you can line him up outside and utilize that to sort of offset the speed that you have with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Wadd. I think it’s a fun idea. And again, your worst case is you’re out a sixth round pick next year. Your upside here is you get a piece that maybe with Devon Achan continuing to come on, you hope can stay healthy, all those things, you’re hoping maybe this is something that Darren Waller is going to get a boatload of balls thrown in his direction and that’s going to give you the opportunity to exploit certain mismatches as we head here into 2025. Hey Tom, I’m looking at the Dolphins depth chart. Tua obviously is the key. Uh Achan along with Jaylen Wright and Alexander Madison is the running back room top three. Uh Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Wadd, and to me one of the more unheralded pickups of the offseason. Nick Westbrook Akin um is the third wide receiver there with some other massive speed um on the wide receiver depth chart with Waller and Engold. you protect Tua, keep him healthy, and you I mean, this is this is the Mike McDaniel vision, right? Fast, quick, um, and and get get a ton of points. And if Jaylen Phillips and Bradley Chub are healthy, my guy Kenneth Grant being drafted, um, you know, obviously they’re now greener in the corner position, but that’s your Dolphins 2025 outlook with just looking at the depth chart. Not too shabby, Tom. And you’re hoping that Mink Fitzpatrick just as a veteran player is going to be able to stabilize uh the back end with a really young secondary around him. U you know, listen, it all comes down, this isn’t breaking news. It all comes down to Tua and his ability to stay on the field. Look at Mike McDaniel’s record when Tua Tongabaloa is his starting quarterback. It’s very good. When he’s not out there, it’s not as good. And you can say that about most any team in the NFL. You lose the starting quarterback, then no matter who you have as the backup, you’re probably in some deep trouble if you got to get through more than two to four games. The difference with Tua is there’s a long injury history here going all the way back to Alabama, the tightroppe surgery on his ankle, the dislocated hip, then obviously the concussions in the NFL. You just don’t know. He he’s doing everything he can, right? Every year we have the stories. He’s learning martial arts, ways to fall. He is going to protect himself more. or he’s going to get down and then you’ll see him and all of a sudden the instincts kick in and he lowers his head into somebody in the red zone on a run and he ends up missing a couple of months. That’s what this all boils down to for the Miami Dolphins is keeping to a tongue of Aloa healthy. If he is, I do think that you can see their path forward here in terms of we’re going to be able to compete. We’re going to be able to get the ball to all these different playmakers here and be good enough on defense. If something happens to Tua, then you’re down to Zach Wilson, who has a ton of ability, but has been a roller coaster ride to say the least in his NFL career. Though, I do think he’s in a really good spot now with Mike playing in the same offense he was drafted for with Mike Laflure out there with the Jets. And then he’s competing with Quinn Yurs, who’s kind of the opposite where the the physical traits may not be there, but he has won and he’s been there and been in big games over and over again. Is there a clear answer there? Are you handing this off to somebody who you feel like can step right in? probably not if you’re a Dolphins fan. You just you got to keep Tua on the field. And if that doesn’t happen, if Tua were to get hurt again, and certainly none of us are rooting for that to happen, but there’s going to be decisions for everybody to make as we head into 2026. And the other function, Rich, of that Jaylen Ramsey trade is they pick up a guy and make a Fitzpatrick now who they could cut after the season if they wanted to clear a bunch more money off the books with no cap consequences. They removed the future Jaylen Ramsey guaranteed money. They gave themselves more flexibility actually as we head into 2026 while the Steelers got all the flexibility because Jaylen Ramsey will probably started outside corner, but he can play nickel. He can play safety. They can move him around into different positions. We’ll see. You know, we don’t I hate outcome based analysis. We’re looking at this uh in advance, but you can understand why both teams did this deal. And it’s going to be fascinating to watch the ripple effects across both teams in 2025. Tom, you the man. Have a great fourth. We’ll chat. We’ll chat soon. Ladies and gentlemen, catch the Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from 12 to 3:00 p.m.

NFL Insider Tom Pelissero and Rich discuss the reasons behind TE Darren Waller surprisingly coming out of retirement to play in Miami

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46 comments

  2. Who would come out of retirement to play for the toxic Miami Dolphins, they have a toxic culture starting from 2007 calling Mike Tomlin "too hip-hop" then went with Cam Cameron. They have recently tried tanking, failed, tried tampering with Sean Payton & Tom Brady, failed, I wonder if former Dolphins players will call it out.

  4. lol he needed the money got to "play" in Miami will probably catch 8-12 balls all season. Enjoy!

    Sorry his rap career didn't take off

  5. I know what goes around also comes around but the Giants should atleast got 4th for this. The player and the Dolphins had no leverage. They wanted him and could only deal with 1 team to get him. Oh well, atleast something is better than nothing.

  7. Dolphins can easily be the Lions of the AFC. Both teams are structured similarly, both Coaches have that bold going for it on 4th down mindset with pretty talented defenses

  9. I wish the media will stop with r the narrative that everything will be fine “if Tua can stay in the field”. While yes that’s a problem, that’s not his only problem. The Dolphins were 6-5 last year with Tua on the field. They were Jevon Holland punch out away from getting beat by the Jags in week one and were well on their way to getting beat by the Bills before he got hurt in week 3.

    In 2023 he played every game! In the final 3 weeks, they were in position to have the number overall seed and they were 3 games up on the Bills to win the AFC East. They lost out WITH TUA…and then went on to get embarrassed in the first round of the playoffs! What Dolphin homers and TuAnon would try to have you believe is that injuries (other than Tua) derailed the rest of the season. If that’s true, then don’t tell me that the only concern for the Dolphins is for Tua to stay in the field as if he lifts this team up. He is only as good as everyone is around him. As long as things are perfect, he can be good. Not elite, not great, not a play maker, not a difference maker when it matters. He can run this offense efficiently (at times), and he is a good game manager but if things are less than ideal or the opposing defense makes things hard for him, it’s a wrap!

  12. Tom you are confusing “instincts” with bad habits. Football players are not turtles that duck our head inward at the first sign of a collision.

  21. Can you believe Darren Waller was this close to staying retired? But now he's joining the Dolphins? This could be the comeback story of the decade, but at 33, is he really the same player that terrorized defenses in his prime? Miami's high-risk, high-reward move—what do you think, is this a genius play or just a gamble waiting to backfire?

  22. His music career was a massive flop 😂 paid a bunch of yes men telling him he was good to produce, rent studio time, make music videos etc. That prob cost him more than his divorce.

  30. Jonnu was good last year due to lack of QB no real WR’s for the weak af qb play. So dunk and dunk is the only play. So jonnu get a PB pass. We needed to get a blocking TE. Don’t think mister 33 year old can block.

  31. If Tua plays all season he will be in the MVP talks and Miami makes the playoffs easy. It all on him not getting injured. When healthy the numbers dont lie top 3 in the NFL. The the problem is thar he hasn't played a full season yet.

  34. The Dolphins don´t have corners and in the AFC with all its great QBs that is a mayor weakness, they also lack a proven offensive line, another mayor weakness. These two issues are enough to cast a big shadow on 2025. Maybe they win 9 games. I hope I´m wrong and they win the SB, I just don´t see it.

  37. Waller had 2 good season 3 years in and was bad once he left the raiders. Low risk flier indeed but I dont expect anything from him to change the offense or be a guy to game plan around. Just seemed to be good in that one system for 2-3 years. Not buying it really. 2x 1k yard seasons(hes certainly not seeing 90/100 targets like he did on the raiders, and was also 4 seasons ago) and then 1,100 yards combined the following 3 years. bro quit on the Giants because they needed him to block. No thanks

  44. He will play for a latte-sipping wimp of a coach who will not hold him accountable for his performance. He passed “GO” and collected $200!

  45. Miami never learns from its mistakes. Straight speed doesn’t work cuz it doesn’t last through 18 weeks. Why do you think over the last 3 years they epically collapse. And it’s not just Tua injuries

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