Tight end Darren Waller is returning to the NFL just months after announcing his retirement, and he\u2019s doing so with a new team. The Miami Dolphins have acquired Waller in a trade with the New York Giants, who still held his playing rights. In exchange, Miami will send a 2026 sixth-round pick to New York and receive a conditional 2027 seventh-round pick alongside the veteran tight end. Waller has agreed to a one-year contract worth up to $5 million as part of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Waller, 32, stepped away from football earlier this year, citing health concerns and a desire to explore interests outside the sport, including music. A former Pro Bowler with the Las Vegas Raiders, he amassed over 4,100 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns across his eight-year career. His return comes at a crucial time for the Dolphins, who recently traded tight end Jonnu Smith to the Steelers, leaving a gap at the position. Waller’s comeback offers Miami a proven playmaker to bolster its offensive arsenal heading into the 2025 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tight end Darren Waller is returning to the NFL just months after announcing his retirement, and he\u2019s doing so with a new team. The Miami Dolphins have acquired Waller in a trade with the New York Giants, who still held his playing rights. In exchange, Miami will send a 2026 sixth-round pick to New York and receive a conditional 2027 seventh-round pick alongside the veteran tight end. Waller has agreed to a one-year contract worth up to $5 million as part of the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller.webp",1400,788,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller.webp",1400,788,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller.webp",1400,788,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller-300x169.webp",300,169,true],"large":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller-1024x576.webp",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller.webp",1400,788,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller.webp",1400,788,false],"digital-newspaper-featured":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller-1020x700.webp",1020,700,true],"digital-newspaper-list":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller-600x400.webp",600,400,true],"digital-newspaper-thumb":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller-300x200.webp",300,200,true],"digital-newspaper-small":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller-150x95.webp",150,95,true],"digital-newspaper-grid":["https:\/\/theamshift.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/darren-waller-400x250.webp",400,250,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Sports<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Tight end Darren Waller is returning to the NFL just months after announcing his retirement, and he\u2019s doing so with a new team. The Miami Dolphins have acquired Waller in a trade with the New York Giants, who still held his playing rights. In exchange, Miami will send a 2026 sixth-round pick to New York…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2375,"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373\/revisions\/2375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamshift.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}