Darren Waller and Tyrod Taylor's long friendship has unlocked the Giants' offense
Darren Waller of the Giants celebrates his second-quarter touchdown reception against the Commanders at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
When Darren Waller came to the line of scrimmage on third-and-goal from the 15 and looked out at the Commanders’ defense last Sunday, he knew what was about to happen. Not only did the tight end have the scheme that would allow him to get open in the end zone if he adjusted his route accordingly, he knew he had the quarterback to get him the ball in the right spot.
“We kind of looked at each other at the line and it was like, ‘OK,’ ” Waller said of what would become his first touchdown as a Giant and the team’s first first-half touchdown of the season. It ended a streak of more than 220 minutes without the offense reaching the end zone and gave the Giants a 7-0 lead in their eventual 14-7 win.
“We kind of knew what time it was there,’’ Waller said. “We just had that non-verbal thing going right there.”
It was a connection we didn’t see much of in the preseason and early regular season as Waller worked mostly with Daniel Jones to refine their chemistry and Tyrod Taylor got second-string reps.
It turned out that Waller and Taylor didn’t need those training camp practices together to create such a bond.
They already had it long before Waller arrived via trade from the Raiders in the offseason. They have been in sync in such ways since they first began working together in 2018.
Taylor had a house in Atlanta — still does — and was playing for the Bills at the time after beginning his career with the Ravens. Waller had played at Georgia Tech, so he also had connections in that area.
At the time, though, Waller wasn’t exactly a proven NFL player. In fact, he wasn’t even technically a part of the league.
A sixth-round pick by the Ravens in 2015 as a wide receiver who converted to tight end (he and Taylor never played together in Baltimore), he’d been suspended for the 2017 season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy a second time in his short career. He checked himself into rehab to recover from his alcoholism and other addictions, and he was working on getting back in shape while hoping for reinstatement from the NFL.
“The trainer I was working with and the trainer Tyrod was working with knew each other and they were just trying to throw to some bodies,” Waller told Newsday of how the relationship with Taylor formed. “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m trying to get some work in too.’ So it organically came about.”
Taylor knew of Waller’s off-the-field issues but agreed to work with him. He immediately was glad he did.
“There were plenty of times it was just me and Darren on the field,” Taylor told Newsday. “I would always tell people that this kid, he works harder than anybody I’ve ever been around. There would be times where it was an hour-and-a-half or a two-hour session and it’s just me, him and one of our friends on the field, and he’s running every route.”
Taylor said he has worked with lots of players during offseason training and that while college kids who are trying to get into the league often put forth that kind of effort, the ones who already are pros usually will not go all out like that.
“Sometimes when you get league guys in the offseason, they don’t run as many routes,” Taylor said. “They have a number that they hit and they just want to run the top of the route. But Darren ran every route like it was the first route. I have so much respect for him.”
Waller said he felt an immediate click with Taylor.
“He’s someone with a lot of experience,” Waller said. “Back at the time, I still had a lot of room for growth as a player, and anything I could do better, he would bring it to you in a calm way, a loving way. He’d be like, ‘Hey, you are doing this on this route, don’t give this away.’ Just sharing his wisdom and being really encouraging.
“It was fun to work with him. He was super-cool. It was like, ‘Oh, man, this is an environment for me to grow as a player.’ ”
There were other ways to grow, too, as Waller embarked on his comeback in football and in life. Waller was, as he said, “back on my feet” at the time the two started working together, but there still were plenty who had turned their backs on him during those troubled years.
Taylor wasn’t going to be one of them.
“From us working out and our conversations, his attitude never swayed,” Taylor said. “He was the same person every day. He came to the field and he was working, trying to be better as a player, obviously, but as a person too, shaping himself and growing in that way as well.”
So the two of them worked together during the 2018 offseason. Waller was reinstated late that summer and was waived from the Ravens but landed with their practice squad. In November 2018, he was signed to the Raiders’ active roster and appeared in four games with six receptions that season.
Waller returned to Atlanta to work with Taylor in the 2019 offseason, too, and when he returned to Oakland, he was a different player. He caught 90 passes for 1,145 yards and three touchdowns that season. The next season it was 107 catches and nine touchdowns.
Injuries slowed that production in 2021 and 2022, and in early 2023, he was traded to the Giants.
Traded to become the centerpiece of their passing game.
Traded to the team where Taylor was the backup quarterback.
When Jones suffered a neck injury in Week 5 in Miami, Taylor became the starter for the Giants. That’s what put them on the field together for the game in Buffalo that nearly was won on a pass to Waller with no time left on the clock, then again for that touchdown pass against the Commanders and all the other plays they made in that game.
In their two full games together, Waller caught 12 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown. In the five games Jones started, Waller had 23 catches for 189 yards and no scoring plays.
“I’m happy to see him blossom into the player he has grown into being,” Taylor said. “He’s a good friend of mine. We stayed in touch over the years, but it’s awesome to be able to share this locker room with him and share the field with him as well.”
Waller, who wears number 12 with the Giants as an homage to the 12-step program that saved his career and maybe even his life, agreed with Taylor about appreciating their renewed relationship and the new level it has reached as actual teammates.
He thought Taylor was “cool” in 2018 when they first met. He felt Taylor was someone who brought out the best in him.
“Still is,” Waller said. “No doubt.”
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.
