In what was supposed to be an organization-changing trade for the NY Giants, it's looking like the Darren Waller experiment is going to come to an end. Waller has been away from the team this offseason, hinting multiple times that he's going to hang up his cleats. That's now most likely what's going down.
According to ESPN's Jordan Raanan and Adam Schefter, Waller is planning to make his decision before the team's mandatory minicamp arrives, but their sources are telling them that the expectation is that Waller is going to retire. We had a feeling No. 12 was leaning this way, which is a bit of a bummer:
Darren Waller is expected to make a decision by next week’s minicamp on his playing future and people in and around the team expect he’s going to retire, multiple sources told @AdamSchefter and me. Would be a pleasant surprise if he decided otherwise. https://t.co/KiH645hDJe
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) June 3, 2024
"The Giants have been operating throughout the offseason, partly out of necessity, as if Waller will retire. New York added at tight end in free agency and the draft, which included the selection of Penn State's Theo Johnson in the fourth round. Johnson, who has elite pass-catching traits, has even taken some first-team snaps this spring with Waller skipping the voluntary workouts."Jordan Raanan
The hope was that Waller would make a final decision by the NFL Draft, but that didn't happen. With the Giants using a fourth-round pick on Theo Johnson, as Raanan noted, it showed that the team was preparing for the possibility of not having Waller on the field for the 2024 campaign.
Recently, Waller released a music video and the speculation only grew that he was going to call it a career in the league. The veteran TE and former Pro Bowler admitted that he wasn't sure if his heart would be all-in on playing and him being away for OTAs sure spoke volumes to where his head was at too.
In his lone season with the G-Men, Waller posted 52 receptions for 552 yards and one touchdown. New York traded a third-round pick to the Las Vegas Raiders for Waller last offseason, with the team hoping he'd be a top pass-catching option for Daniel Jones. That never came to fruition and the 6-6, 240-pounder is now one-and-done with the NFC East side.