The Latest Chapter in the Great Waller Mystery

The Miami Dolphins are continuing to ramp up their preparations for their season opener against the Indianapolis Colts, and we’re still looking for any indication, any reason to believe that Darren Waller is ready to make a contribution to the offense.

The veteran tight end, who unretired after being acquired in a trade with the New York Giants, has yet to have a full practice despite the Dolphins still only talking about getting info football shape and “ramping up,” and now head coach Mike McDaniel has told the media that Waller will not take part in the first practice of Week 1.

The Dolphins will have to release an injury report — technically, it’s a “player participation report” — after practice late Wednesday afternoon and we’ll get some sort of an indication as to whether Waller is dealing with some kind of physical issue.

In the meantime, the situation continues to be, well, bizarre. There’s simply no other way to put it.

“We're being very intentional with how we practice with Darren to do right by the Dolphins and do right by him,” McDaniel said Wednesday. “We have not pressed the threshold of three days consecutive intentionally. And tomorrow's practice is third down, followed by the red zone emphasis. So it was intentional for him. You won't see him today, but that's not because of a setback.”

WEEK 1 WATCH AND EXPECTATIONS

For those who like to read between the lines or grab hints whenever they can find them, McDaniel kinda suggested the Dolphins aren’t really counting on Waller while obviously being receptive to what he could bring to the offense.

“I've been fortunate enough to be in the NFL a long time, and as a result, found there's been multiple different ways for players at different positions to impact the game,” McDaniel said. “And the intentionality of bringing Darren here was real, but we're also working through the process of playing good football, not depending on Darren.

“So what does that mean? That means, just like the situation with Tyreek Hill (dealing with an oblique injury), where him not being on the field allows for other evaluation and growth of the team, although it doesn't, you don't perceive it immediately as ideal. There's good residuals, and Darren is the exact same way, I think, in that there's stuff that we're working on that we feel very comfortable with, and while he adds a significant value to our team, I think our team feels very strong as we've practiced without him. So he's a residual gain, I think, to coaches and players. So as we work through that and his assimilation back into professional football from the sofa, he's done a great job protecting what we need him to protect, which is work, challenge himself to not put himself  in harm's way with overcooking. Fast guys love to show how fast they are and you're trying to have a long season vision, and he's very locked into the game plan.”

That’s all great and dandy, except this is where we point out that the Dolphins acquired Waller on July 1, which makes it nine weeks ago.

That seems like more than ample time for Waller to get himself into “football shape,” leading to the reasonable assumption there’s something amiss going on with Waller.

The Dolphins don’t need Waller as much as some might think, even after losing Jonnu Smith in the offseason via the trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers, because the offense was at its best in 2022 and 2023 when the tight end was an afterthought in the passing game as opposed to a vital part of it last year when Smith had his record-breaking season.

Still, the only other tight ends on the active roster are Julian Hill and Tanner Conner, which would lead one to believe that maybe Conner could pick up the slack as a receiving tight end in the event Waller isn’t available.

Regardless, whatever expectations for what Waller could bring to the Dolphins might have been at the time of the trade maybe should be adjusted because there’s such mystery surrounding him.

And him not being able to have a full week of practice ahead of the season opener in his first NFL action since announcing his retirement June 9 of 2024 is the epitome of mystery.

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