MIAMI GARDENS — It’s been a long training camp and first three weeks of the regular season for new Miami Dolphins tight end Darren Waller.

After coming out of retirement to join the Dolphins ahead of camp, he started on the physically-unable-to-perform list, supposedly because he had to get into football shape.

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Before the start of the regular season and after he had been activated off PUP in the final week of the preseason, he suffered a setback to a hip strain.

It wasn’t enough to land him on injured reserve, though, as he went week-to-week missing Miami’s first three games.

After the long layover between the Dolphins’ Sept. 18 loss to the Buffalo Bills and Monday night’s Week 4 game against the New York Jets, it’s finally time for Waller to debut in a Dolphins uniform.

“I definitely see that it’s a process that has been a lot longer than I would have liked, people with the team would’ve liked,” Waller said Thursday after practice. “You’ve got to deal with the reality of situations like this rather than what I wish I could have been. I’m grateful to still have the opportunity to play a football game on Monday. I’m really looking forward to it.”

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It won’t exactly be an onslaught of Waller reps against the Jets. There are certain packages in which Waller can be featured.

“It’s probably more situational,” McDaniel said Tuesday, “but I wouldn’t go to all these lengths, have all this buildup and then throw him out there for 60 or something (snaps). I kind of have an idea roughly what it is, but we’ll see if that idea plays through the practice week.”

Waller went through a strong Tuesday practice and more drawn-back Thursday session before completing Friday’s work. He and the Dolphins have one more practice Saturday ahead of the Monday night game.

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“I trust the plan that the coaches and the performance staff have put together for me,” said Waller, adding moments in recent practices have left him encouraged, “and I believe it’s the perfect amount for me. It’s challenging but also something to where I can continue to build up as the season goes along.”

Conventional wisdom would say passing plays in the red zone would be a good starting point for where to find action for Waller and his 6-foot-6 frame.

His height is something McDaniel highlighted as different than many of the Dolphins’ other pass-catching options, like wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and running back De’Von Achane.

“He’s the opposite of the eligibles that we have outside of Nick (Westbrook-Ikhine),” McDaniel said. “He has gigantic range and catch radius, and he’s a very big human being that moves really fast.”

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Incidentally, Westbrook-Ikhine, who is 6 feet 2 and had nine touchdown catches with the Tennessee Titans last year, has only been targeted five times for three receptions through three games this season.

“It’s basically adding another guy with a skill set that’s going to be complementary to the offense and just being able to play within the plays,” said Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith, who was Waller’s position coach when he had his Pro Bowl season in 2020 with the Las Vegas Raiders. “When the plays come to you, making them and then if not, being in the right spot at the right time for availability in the run game or the pass game.”

With how much Waller has been out of practice and often limited to workouts on the side, he hasn’t been exposed to much contact yet since making his comeback. Julian Hill would be the tight end Miami wants in the game more often for run-blocking anyway.

“You get in there, you get cracked over the middle, your body is going to wake up real quick,” Waller said. “It’s something that you can’t really simulate fully, it’s just something that you’ve got to get into a game and adapt to. I feel like I’m ready to do that.”

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For Waller, though, after missing the entire 2024 season, when he steps out onto the field Monday night, it’ll be the first time in a regular-season game since the end of 2023.

“It’s still a process of wrapping my head around it,” Waller said. “I feel like it’s like riding a bike a little bit, but at the same time, it’s a challenge. You can’t walk out into an NFL field and expect things to be easy or expect things to be how they once were; you’ve got to earn it at all times and I’m fully aware of that.”