EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — If one thing has stood out in the first couple of days of training camp for the New York Giants, it’s seeing tight end Darren Waller catch passes from Daniel Jones.
What has to be exciting for coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka is Waller has been wide open on some passes, caught them in traffic and even taken a hit on a goal-line reception.
For a team that has lacked a go-to receiver for years, Waller might turn out to be the answer. And the price was not steep. General manager Joe Schoen sent Las Vegas a third-round draft pick in March for a player who is a major headache for opposing defenses when he is healthy.
In 2019 and ’20, Waller caught 197 passes combined for 2,341 yards and 12 touchdowns. The Giants had 17 TD catches last season. Waller was slowed by thigh and knee injuries the past two years, but he looks healthy now.
“I want to be able to do everything and just present myself as a viable option to the quarterback every time I run a route,” Waller said Friday. “Like that’s really the goal. Keep it simple. Go out there and make myself presentable. Like if he wants to go there, he can throw there and throw it to me. So that’s just how I approach it.”
Waller also likes the dialogue he has with Daboll and Kafka. They are willing to listen if he has tweaks in the way a pattern is run.
“The playbook may tell you to do this and run to this landmark and do that, but it’s like you can put your own little sauce on it and get open as long as the fundamentals are there and your knowledge of what the defense is doing and your timing and the concept is there,” he said.
Safety Xavier McKinney laughed and stated the basics when asked about what makes Waller special. He’s 6-foot-6, has great hands, runs a 4.4 second, 40-yard dash and runs routes like a wide out, he said.
“When I am on him, it puts me on high alert,” McKinney said. “I have to be because I know that every play, he can get the ball. It just makes me compete and go a lot harder, it makes me a lot better. Definitely love having him on this team because I know how he’s going to help us.”
The Giants could use more big plays on offense. They were tied for last in the league (Rams) with 16 passes of 25 yards or more. The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs had a league-best 49. The Philadelphia Eagles, who beat the Giants three times including the Eastern Conference semifinal last season, were second with 38.
The lack of big play production was such a concern, Schoen also signed free agents receivers Parris Campbell and Jamison Crowder and drafted Jalin Hyatt of Tennessee in the third round. The receiver group also features Darius Slayton coming off a rebound season and Isaiah Hodgins, who might have been the team’s top receiver late last season after being picked up on waivers from Buffalo.
Campbell said the Giants’ defense tried to double Waller in the offseason and failed most of the time because his athletic skills are freakish.
“He’s going to be able to open things up, you know, for guys on the outside, obviously the slot opposite him, to the running game,” Campbell said. “Everything is going to work off each other.”
Hyatt might be the X-factor in the offense, based on his performance at Tennessee last year. He had 67 catches for 1,267 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Hyatt has no doubt he can take the next step and also produce on the NFL stage. He points out though, that big plays are more than the speedster carrying the ball.
“Everybody going to be on the same page,” Hyatt said. “I think big plays are run after the catch. I think that’s another thing. You know, what do you do after you catch the ball? I want to score every time I catch the ball”
With Waller drawing opponents’ attention, things could open up for the Giants.
