There are two questions on the mind of every Miami Dolphins fan.
What’s wrong with Darren Waller and will the Pro Bowl tight end be ready for Week 1?
Since his early July arrival in Miami, Waller has yet to fully practice since coming out of retirement to play for the Dolphins. The biggest update came Wednesday when the franchise activated him off of the physically unable to perform list. And while coaches have maintained that Waller will be ready when it matters, such claims should be taken with a health dose of skepticism, considering there have been previous examples of high-profile players who come to Miami with great expectations only for them to not pan out.
Granted, this is not yet the case with Waller, whom Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said suffered “no setbacks” when he warmed up in full pads Saturday ahead of the preseason finale against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Even more important: the messaging has been consistent since day one — they want to bring Waller along slowly and not risk him in joint practices — which was why he began training camp on the PUP list.
“You didn’t know my standard procedure for out-of-retirement players?” Coach Mike McDaniel initially quipped back in late July. “You’re trying to be responsible. There’s no gravity to it. It’s just that this is a very well-conditioned athlete who’s in great shape. There’s a zero-to-60 element in science, in general, that you try to avoid, and so we’re being preventative and responsible as he gets his feet wet.”
Since then, the updates about Waller spoke to his mental preparedness for the season.
“I’ve been throwing out all sorts of challenges to his position coach to do extra little things to make sure he’s on top of all the nuances of the position, so when he gets on the field, all things that we can control from assignment standpoint, he’s on,” McDaniel said Aug. 8.
“The mental side is an extreme strength of his, so knowing where he needs to be, terminology, that for him is always just something that comes very natural to him because he’s used to having to line up everywhere, especially at the Raiders,” Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith said Aug. 19. “So for him really, coming back is just making sure that we’re getting him physically ready considering he had the year off.”
Still, one can’t help but think of the Odell Beckham Jr. saga, which also began with him on the PUP list to start training camp in 2024. Similar to Waller, the star wideout arrived in Miami with the expectation that he was the solution to the Dolphins’ No. 3 receiver role. Not only was Beckham sidelined for the first month of the regular season, he was gone by Week 14.
And just what did Dolphins coaches praise about Beckham during his time on the PUP? His preparation.
“I’m not at a position of nervousness because of the way he’s been involved,” McDaniel said in late August 2024. “He’s found a way to be a leader of sorts without playing. That’s tough to do, but his mind-set is right so I feel good about that.”
Another name that haunts Dolphins fans is Will Fuller V. After a career year with the Houston Texans in 2020, the receiver joined the Dolphins the following year. Fuller would experience career lows across all categories, being limited to just two games with a broken finger before he too was gone at the end of the 2021 season.
While fans questioned Fuller’s desire to play, that should not be the case with Waller (even though that was one of the reasons he retired in 2023). In several interviews, Waller expressed a desire to specifically play under Smith, his former Raiders tight ends coach with the Raiders that helped him during the early days of his sobriety journey.
And that’s exactly what happened after a late-June trade sent Jonnu Smith, the most productive tight end in Dolphins history, to the Pittsburgh Steelers, leaving Miami’s position group in flux.
Enter Waller.
The deal almost seemed too good to be true. Within a day of Smith’s trade, Waller not only unretired but was sent to Miami via a trade with the New York Giants, the team that originally owned his rights.
“I was content in my retirement, but I also felt like this was a good opportunity for me to — if this is my last chapter playing football, to close it in a way that’s different than I did before and one that allows me to tap into the joy of why I started doing it in the first place,” Waller said July 22, adding that he brings “playmaking ability.”
What remains a bit unclear, however, is how long will it take for Waller to gel with Tua Tagovailoa, who hasn’t thrown much with the one-time Pro Bowler, a necessity for the franchise quarterback.
“I haven’t had a ton of reps with Waller just because he’s working his way back into the feeling of running his routes and then the feeling of his pads as well,” Tagovailoa said Saturday. “So hopefully this next upcoming week we can work on a lot of those things prior to the Week 1 lead-up to play the Colts.”
While the expectation for Waller should not be to replicate Smith’s production, his presence as a premiere pass-catcher could take away attention from the dynamic duo of receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The tight end had back-to-back 1,1100-yard receiving seasons in 2019 and 2020, something that only the greats at the position — Travis Kelce, Tony Gonzalez, Shannon Sharpe — have done.
Waller could very well be the best weapon Tagovailoa has had at tight end. Whatever magic the two could make, however, won’t be realized if they don’t begin to develop a connection.