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March 15, 2023 13 mins
John Schmeelk sits down with the Giants' newest tight end, Darren Waller, to chat about playing for big blue, his family’s connection to New York and how he can help the Giants’ offense in 2023. 00:00 - Fitting into the Giants offense 4:39 - Connection to New York 6:26 - Coaches and teammates 8:37 - Playing with Daniel Jones 10:47 - Playing through adversity

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time to get inside the Giants Huttle on Giants
dot Com on the Giants part of the Giants podcast Network.
Welcome to another edition of the Giant Huttle podcast, brought
to you by ps ANDNG Energy Efficiency. For game time
and anytime, visit PSEG dot com slash Giants for discounts,
rebates and home energy assessments. The Giants have traded for

(00:23):
Las Vegas Raiders tight end Darren Waller, sending the third
round pick they received in the Canarius Tony trade last year,
which was a compensatory pick at the end of the
third round. Darren Waller arrives to the Giants with two
consecutive one thousand yard seasons during the two thousand and
nineteen twenty twenty season. I had a chance to catch

(00:44):
up with him and talk about his arrival in New York.
And now we're joined by one of the newest members
of the New York Football Giants, tight end Darren Waller. Darren, Congratulations,
welcome to Big Blue. Thank you mans honored to be here.
So take us through what this last twenty four hours
has been like for you. Uh, it's being kind of crazy. Um.
I was finished up with my physical therapist yesterday in

(01:04):
Las Vegas where I live, and uh I just our
general major for the Raiders called me and said I
was being traded, and a couple of ments after that,
I got a FaceTime from from Joe and Dave's and
they were super excited, which was cool to see, you know.
And a former coach of mine and I'm really close

(01:25):
to is has good relationships with coaches on this staff
and speaks very highly of them. So that's very just
the overall culture of the building so far. Just being
here and here today, it's very refreshing, um, and I'm
just excited to be a part of what's going on here.
What was the FaceTime like with Joe, Shane and Brian Davie.
Oh man, it was just jokes, um, you know, but

(01:47):
just you know, good energy. Uh really felt like they
were excited to have me be a part of what's
going on. And just to see how much the players
and and and the coaches around them speak of the
culture that they create on how how much they enjoy
being a part of it. Is U is really cool
and it makes me excited to be a part of
Did this really catch you by surprise or is this

(02:08):
a potential thing on your radar that you were thinking
about before you got the call. Um didn't totally shot me. Um.
I was on and off the trade blocks and the
whole time since the the coaching staff and the front
office for the Raiders got there. So it'd been h
you know, sometimes like them, maybe I answer not to me,
I'm not, but it's how the business goes, all right.

(02:30):
So for Giant fans and maybe haven't seen you play
a ton being on the East Coast, could you describe
your game for them in one word? I would say versatile.
I mean you look at times I've split outside the numbers,
line up in the slot, running every route that there
is to run in an offensive scheme, line up in

(02:52):
every position there is to line up in multiple years
of you know, being the number one guy end a
passing offense. So back to back thousand yard seasons, so
I know what it's like to put the work in
to be somebody that carries a heavy workload, and I'm
excited to carve out a role and do everything that

(03:13):
i can to help the Giants. You mentioned those back
to back thousand yard seasons you had. When you've had success,
how have teams use you, how can they use you best?
Kind of like I said earlier, is outside the numbers
can go deep, you know, inside the numbers, whether it
be option routes like I mean, you name it. I
feel like I try to pride my game on not

(03:35):
having any major holes and not seeing something as not
being able to be done. I can always learn that
I may not be as good at it as I
am in the beginning, but as long as I keep
working at it, putting reps and I feel like there's
not a route or a certain thing that the offense
wants to get done that I can't do or give
the offense a chance to succeed at. We talked about
down while on the field. How would you describe your personality?

(03:56):
What type of guy is this locker room gonna have
walking in there when you start with them in the spring. Um,
I'll say a guy that leads by example. UM. I've
never really been the uh, the raw ra vocal guy.
I'm growing into a role where I feel comfortable when
I when I speak, I have something to say, and
I try to speak with impact, but really more so

(04:17):
UH embodying the philosophy. I try to live by it.
As opposed to just preaching about it. Um, So I'd
like they're gonna be a guy that's I'm not going
to ask something from them that I'm not willing to
do myself and be right alongside them in it in
the trenches. So just a guy that's gonna go out
there and uh enjoy being their teammate, being their friend,
and somebody that's not just trying to be out here

(04:38):
looking for my own. You've been in a few different
cities in your NFL career. Looking at your background, looks
like you moved around a little bit growing up too.
How about coming to New York? Now, what do you
think about that. I'm excited to be here. You know,
it's my it's my it's my Pops team, you know.
Um excited to uh to be here and to you know,
see what it's like here, to live here, and we
learn more about the area through here him and through

(05:00):
everybody that's here. But I'm very excited to be here,
be on the East Coast. Football is a big deal.
Always known that this is you know, flagship organization in
the league, and they always do things the right way,
take care of people. So I'm excited to get my
feet wet. What was his reaction when you told him
that you're going to the Giants And what's his connection
with New York? I mean, he was over the moon, rightfully.

(05:22):
So he's from New York, from Queens, Jamaica. Queen's been
a Giants fans his whole life. I've watched the Giants
growing up with him. I've seen pretty much every nugget
of Giants history, whether from NFL films or just sitting
on the couch watching with him. So's it's cool to
be able to be here and have like full circle

(05:43):
life moments like that, and you know, with the rest
of a lot of his family as well as from
New York, so just to represent them along with representing
the Giants is a pretty cool thing. So you probably
know there's a pretty rich tradition of tight Endier going
back to Mark Bavaro Jeremy Shocking. What does it mean
to you now which kind of join that group, just
respecting the tradition, respecting the foundation that those guys have

(06:06):
laid at the position, watching them growing up, and trying
to continue that in my own unique way and inspire
the other guys that are in the tight end room.
To go about doing it the same way, because it's
already a really solid group watching them from AFAR last year,
so I feel like just as a unit, we'll be
able to continue that tradition. You mentioned you talked to

(06:27):
a coach that news some of the coaches here right.
Do you have any other connections to any players in
the Giants that have you reached down to talk to anybody?
I never didn't have any. Well, I know Cajre, Lawrence
Cajre we trained something this summer, and Tyrod Taylor was
my offseason quarterback for probably three years in Atlanta because
he bought a house down there, so we were training

(06:48):
a lot there. So those are two guys that I've
gotten to know and reached out to me and we're
excited to have me And got to meet Daniel Jones
and some of the coaches here as well. And then
you got Wink and Drew and those guys are in
Baltimore when I was there, so it's a lot of
familiar faces that and I know those people do things
right away and respect the craft, so it's great to

(07:10):
be a part of it with them. I know you
haven't had much of a chance to talk to people
who here about. Have you gotten a taste of how
Mike Kafka, how Brian Dable, how Andy bish Off the
tight Ends coach planned to use you and implement them,
you know, Kafka had Kelsey in Kansas City, Brian Dableod
Gronkowski as a tight Ends coach up in New England.
Uh yeah, just very creative approaches of you know, building

(07:31):
the offense around the players in their skill sets. You know,
I'm excited to see them challenge me and put me
in new positions, put me in positions I've been in
before that I've succeeded in. But just from the complements
I've talked to them, they really seem excited to just
you know, use me as a guinea pig in a way,
you know, just put me anywhere. And I'm excited to

(07:52):
make things happen for them and to see our relationship grow.
In your time with the Raiders, and then prior to that,
you've been through a bunch of different offense of systems,
having to learn a new one. Do you feel like
you have a leg up since you've been through this
a few times now already? Uh? Yeah, you know, I
bring a sense of calm and peace. You know, as
long as I'm putting it in the repetitions and doing

(08:14):
what's asked, I feel like I'm gonna pick it up.
Find that balance if not putting too much pressure on
yourself to have it perfect at any point in time,
but at the same time having a sense of urgency
to be on the small details from the jump in
order to be able to not only help yourself succeed,
but the guys around you being able to help them
see things clear as well. So I want to be

(08:35):
able to do that as well. You mentioned your a
chance to talk to Daniel Jones. Will be joining Daniel
Bell and during the tight of room. Also Lawrence Cager, right,
Saquon Barclay's back, a lot of other guys on this roster.
Just talk about the guy that you'll be joining and
kind of what you've seen from them watching the league
over the last couple of years. Just a lot of
guys that can really make plays. Seeing Daniel, you know,

(08:57):
continue to elevate his game, you know, you see some
of the narratives that people put in the media and
the pressure that he receives. I feel like he's done
nothing but respond to that in a positive way each
and every year. And I mean, say Quon Barkley speaks
for herself. I mean just the mental toughness for him
to bounce back from some years that weren't reflective of
the caliber of player that he is to ball like

(09:19):
he did last year is very impressive. But a lot
of good young playmakers that maybe a lot of fans
around the league, casual fans may not know of, but
you watch the Giants and it's like, these dudes can
really get it done. So I'm excited to be with
them because, you know, I feel like playmakers inspire playmakers.
You know, I'm around them. The way they can bring
energy to practice in games like that could lift me

(09:39):
up and then vice versa sometimes. So it's it's really
cool to be a part of. I know, it's tough
to track what's going on around the league sometimes when
you're locked in on what you're doing. But what did
you read from the Giant success last year playing so
well on just the first year of this kind of
new group in new regime. For me, what jows just
it's obviously a culture shift, you know, because there's not

(10:00):
a million things being flipped around, you know, there's a
lot of guys that had been there before, but it's
just you know, somebody came in Dave's and Joe and
guys like that, like building a culture to empower players
and to allow players to, you know, at the end
of the day, have fun doing what they do. You know,
this is a it's a high pressure, high stakes game,
you know, but at the end of the day, you know,

(10:22):
we do best when we have fun and we enjoy
what we're doing and we enjoy who we're doing it with.
And so that's something that jumped out at me, you know,
with looking at tight end groups, looking at multiple running
backs that have got gotten it done, receivers that not
a lot of many people have heard about making plays
in key situations. So it's like, I can tell that
these players feel empowered here to make plays when chances

(10:43):
are presented to them, and that's all a player could
want to be a part of. Final question, you missed
some games the last couple of years with injury. Are
you healthy now and what did you learn about yourself
having to deal with some of those who issues the
last couple of years and I'm trying to fight through them. Yeah,
I am healthy now, and the last couple of years,
I feel like, UM, in twenty twenty one, getting my

(11:04):
knee rolled up the way that I did, and that
things giving game, It's like those are kind of things
that happened in the league. You know what I'm saying, UM,
but the hamstrings last year. Things that I've had to
adapt and change is um not peeking too soon in
the offseason because the way my game really elevated from
twenty nineteen twenty twenty one to get me to the
level of player that I am, and it took a

(11:25):
lot of hard work and almost like putting it into
overdrive too much, and you know, maybe killing yourself too soon,
and we're maybe showing up to training camp working so
hard and having put in so much work that you're
almost burnt out before things even really start. And with
the level of practice load that the that the Raiders
were putting on us, it's like it was it was
a tough battle for me to keep my body, uh

(11:49):
just healthy, you know. So Uh, it's about supplemitting my
offseason to be able to peek at the right time.
And I feel like making the changes for that is
it's going to allow me to just be available. Number
One and when I'm available, I feel like I'm gonna
be able to make an impact and health the team
be better. Darren, this is great. Thank you so much.
Welcome aboard, no problem. Thank you for having me a
great conversation right there with now Giants tight End. Darren

(12:12):
Waller arrives in New York, Dad and native New Yorker
from Jamaica. Queen's a big Giants fan. He's thrilled he
was in the building. Darren Waller thrilled to be here
as well. Very excited, so great to talk to him.
A big offensive weapon for the Giants. He gave you
a little bit of a taste of how Mike Hafkin
Brian Dable might want to use him at tight end.

(12:33):
He's excited about the culture and I'm sure Giant fans
are very excited to see him healthy. He answered his
last question that he is in fact healthy and on
the field for the Giants in twenty twenty three. Thank
you for joining us in this episode of the Giant
Subtle podcast. Make sure you go back listen to the
Brian Dable episode that's the one before this on your
podcast feed and are one at the end of the week.
This week we should be with former NFL General manager

(12:54):
and executive Thomas dmitriof talking about the Giants offseason moves,
and we'll touch on a little bit of draft stuff
as well. Thanks for being with us. Is all brought
to you by PSC and G Energy Efficiency for game
time and anytime, visit PSEG dot com slash Giants for discounts,
rebates and home energy assessments. I'm John Schmilk. Thanks you
being with us. We'll see you next time on the
Giants Huddle.
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