As the Green Bay Packers share interest in trading for Las Vegas Raiders tight end Darren Waller, Waller spoke with FanSided about his feelings on the team.
It’s difficult to know exactly what an NFL player is thinking when trade rumors spring up, but based on what Las Vegas Raiders tight end Darren Waller told FanSided last week, it doesn’t seem like he will be heading to Green Bay anytime soon.
The 2020 Pro Bowl tight end and Icy Hot brand ambassador spoke with FS in an extensive interview detailing his recovery routine, the 2021 Raiders season, and his media ventures in both music and broadcast television.
Waller went into detail about his excitement to pair with Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels and how to “create a rhythm” with the “weapons” the Raiders now possess on offense.
Darren Waller to Packers rumors: Raiders TE spoke on 2022 in Las Vegas
Rather than lose a tight end, it makes more sense for the Raiders to build up what they currently have on their roster. Newly-appointed Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels, who was formerly the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots, is famous for his use of two-tight end sets and the masterful deployment of Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski. In New England, McDaniels led Rob Gronkowski to multiple 600-yard seasons.
“I’m very excited about the way that Coach McDaniels is gonna challenge me and the rest of the tight end room. You see guys like Gronkowski, the way that he puts them in matchup positions to take advantage of those people that are matched up that can’t really cover him, getting opportunities to catch intermediate passes and get yards after the catch; to catch deep passes down the field, over the middle and on the outside.
So there’s a lot of different elements, and he challenges you to learn so many different things so that there’s it’s hard for a defense to gameplan for you or gameplan and say you’re gonna do these certain things if you do a lot of things well. Within the offense, it’s going to be great, and it’s gonna be fun for not only me, but for all the guys that get to make plays.”
Waller is also notably underpaid, signing a four-year, $29 million contract two years ago — it’d be impossible for the Raiders getting a better tight end for a better price.
If it’s up to Waller, the highly-valued tight end is looking forward to the Raiders in 2022 rather than looking for a way out. Waller told FanSided what he anticipates on an offense stacked with weapons like Josh Jacobs, Davante Adams and Hunter Renfrow.
“In the coming months, just building chemistry, learning how… We have so many weapons now that, you know, how do we use and how do we get people involved? How do we create a rhythm within our offense?
And that’s what we’re going to be working on over these next few months because we’re going to keep continuing to grow as the individual players and collectively as we continue to learn this new system and go out there and do our best effort. That’s what’s gonna allow us to translate the products in the field that people are expecting from us.”
