After spending greater than a yr in retirement, Darren Waller lastly returned to the NFL on Monday evening and he made an enormous splash. In his first recreation with the Miami Dolphins, Waller got here out and caught two landing passes towards the New York Jets.
Waller’s first rating of the sport got here on a four-yard go from Tua Tagovailoa that gave the Dolphins an early 10-0 lead.
Waller then adopted that up within the third quarter with a nine-yard landing reception that put the Dolphins up 17-3.
The tight finish caught a complete of three passes for 27 yards by the primary three quarters.
The Dolphins’ new star is having a productive evening that did not even appear attainable simply six months in the past.
Waller’s look on Monday evening got here 631 days after he performed in his final NFL recreation, which got here with the New York Giants throughout Week 18 of the 2023 season. 5 months after that recreation was performed, Waller introduced that he had determined to retire on the age of 31.
The previous Professional Bowler ended up sitting out the complete 2024 season and it did not appear to be he was going to return to soccer, however then a humorous factor occurred: The Giants determined to commerce him. Waller agreed to return out of retirement as a part of the July 1 commerce, which noticed the Giants ship the tight finish to Miami in change for a 2026 sixth-round decide.
The Dolphins’ did not activate Waller till late August and after that occurred, it took his physique to re-acclimate to the NFL.
“You possibly can’t all the time predict how your physique will reply from having time away,” Waller stated in late August. “Principally, it is simply my physique responding properly and, in some methods, it did not, so it was identical to being cautious in that approach to, I assume, take a look at the larger image versus perhaps dashing in to prepare for the very starting.”
Through the first three weeks of the season, Waller wasn’t on the sector. He was listed inactive for every recreation whereas coping with a hip harm. On Monday evening, he was lastly able to make his debut.
The Dolphins are actually a group the place a decent finish can have some success. Through the 2024 season, Jonnu Smith led the group in receptions (88) and receiving touchdowns (8) whereas ending second in receiving yards (884). After Smith acquired traded to the Steelers on June 30, the Dolphins went out an acquired Waller simply in the future later.
Waller completed with over 1,000 yards receiving in each 2019 and 2020 whereas taking part in for the Raiders and even made the Professional Bowl in 2020. In 2023, he completed with 552 receiving yards regardless of taking part in for a Giants offense that merely wasn’t excellent.
In Miami, he’ll have an opportunity to place up some huge numbers and he is already off to a sizzling begin.
