Darren Waller well on his way to becoming the big cheese
New York Giants tight end Darren Waller (12) during warm up before football game against the Carolina Panthers in East Rutherford, N.J., Friday, August 18, 2022. Credit: Noah K. Murray
You have to admire Darren Waller. He certainly understands how to win over the hearts of Giants fans.
Oh, sure, those three catches and runs he turned in during the first drive of Friday night’s preseason win over the Panthers went a long way. But it was after the game that he unleashed the secret weapon in his public image campaign.
He talked about pizza.
Know your audience, right?
“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said of his brief time here in the New York area (with a concentration in New Jersey). “When you talk about a new city, I like to do things that locals do. Go get pizza where there’s good pizza at or whatever, so like just immerse myself into the city, allow myself to be there and find a home.”
He’s already found a pizzeria. Two, actually.
“I was at The Ave in Clifton before I found my spot over in Weehawken,” he said, “so I was in Clifton Family Village Pizza, eating a few more slices a week than I probably should’ve been. But I love pizza.”
Yep. He’s going to fit right in.
And that’s kind of the point. Waller may be partaking in our culinary culture, but he also arrives looking to become part of something larger with the Giants. Something special. Something with everything on it.
“Somebody told me: If you want a friend, be a friend,” he said. “So it’s like try to just connect with those guys [on the team] and show them who I really am and let them know that, hey, I’m in it with you guys. It’s not about me coming here trying to turn my career around or get things for me. It’s about me being a part of what you guys have going and this being an experience for us.”
He’s become fast friends with Daniel Jones. Reps, reps and more reps have helped that relationship grow quickly.
Jones said he knew a little about Waller’s game from watching tape on him, and he certainly called up a few extra clips once he signed with the Giants.
“But it's definitely different when you get on the field with him,” Jones said. “He’s extremely versatile. I think that is something that's impressed me. He’s got the vertical speed to run past people, but he's also got good feel and understanding of the underneath stuff also.”
It’s not as if Waller snuck into town under the headlines. He arrived here this offseason as perhaps the biggest offensive investment the Giants have made for Jones during his five years with them. Sure, Kenny Golladay was supposed to be that, but in their two seasons together, those two never came close to the kind of connection that Jones and Waller already seem to have.
That kind of trumpeted arrival wasn’t the case when Waller signed with the Raiders, his most recent team and the franchise with which he resurrected his career in 2018. He’d had two good seasons with the Ravens before that but was suspended for all of the 2017 season after numerous violations of the substance abuse policy. He’s since found sobriety — it’s the reason he wears the number 12 now, in recognition of the steps it took for him to get there — but when he arrived in Oakland, it wasn’t with anything close to the attention his Giants arrival has brought.
“Nobody was expecting me to really make the team, much less start or really make an impact the way I did, so it’s kind of pressure-free,” he said, adding that the only true pressure came from “the hamster wheel” in his own head.
“But you come here and the pressure and the noise is available for you if you’re looking for it and you give access to it,” he said. “I try to keep the same mindset, same habits, same approach that I did back then as I do now. This is a new environment, new opportunity for me. The way that I show that I am worthy of this or ready for this is the way that I work, the way that I prepare and the way that I set an example each and every day that is worthy of following and allow it to take care of itself.”
Do that and Giants fans will love you forever.
Do that and have the ability to hold a coherent conversation about pizza? Around here, you are on your way to becoming a legend.
None of it will matter, of course, if Waller can’t stay healthy. The most important number for him this season will be how many games he plays in, having appeared in only 20 the last two seasons. And he has to keep catching the ball, too.
Despite the audacious and exciting start Friday night, he did drop one of the four passes thrown to him. Greasy pizza hands, perhaps. It was the only blemish on Jones’ night.
“Hey,” Waller shrugged at his slip-up, “I’ll make it up to him.”
Maybe with a touchdown at some point.
Maybe with a slice.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
