The Phinsider
Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we review the performance of a Dolphins tight end playing his first game in over a year, and who may have still been sitting on the couch were it not for a fortuitous trade. Darren Waller is back — and at the perfect time.
With 13:28 left in the third quarter of the Miami Dolphins’ 27-21 Monday night win over the New York Jets, Tyreek Hill took a quick out route from Tua Tagovailoa, and was tackled by Jets safety Malachi Moore on a 10-yard gain. That play ended Hill’s 2025 season, and there’s no sure answer as to when he’ll be back after suffering a dislocated knee with multiple torn ligaments (including his ACL). We’ll not replay the injury here — if you’re a Dolphins fan (which you probably are if you’re reading this), you’ve either Zaprudered it 500 times already, or you’re avoiding those replays like the plague.
In any event, a Dolphins offense that was already dealing with multiple schematic, personnel, and execution issues was dealt a severe blow. And the reason it may not be a complete death knell could come down to a guy who played his first NFL game since Jan. 7, 2024.
That would be tight end Darren Waller, who caught 52 passes on 74 targets for 552 yards and a touchdown for the New York Giants in the 2023 season, announced his retirement from the NFL on June 9, 2024, missed that entire season, and unretired once the Giants traded his rights to the Dolphins on July 1, 2025. Waller had informed the Giants that he would only return to the league if it was with the Dolphins, and that was that.
Still, the fit wasn’t immediate. It took a minute for Waller to get into what the team deemed to be game shape, and the Jets game was his first.
“I think he looks firmly ready to contribute, which is why he’s going to play in the game,” head coach Mike McDaniel said of Waller last Saturday. “How comfortable does he feel? If you ask him in the first quarter, it’ll probably be different than the third. That game process always feels new every season. But I think one of the conversations he has [had] with teammates is I think the same [thing] happened to Bradley Chubb [who missed the entire 2024 season with a torn ACL].
“Before Game 1, Bradley Chubb’s last game was a week before Darren’s last game. [Waller] looks ready, he feels ready. There’s going to be those gameday jitters that everyone loves as a player, and I’m sure he’ll be very fired up to get the first rep out of the way and so on and so forth. Looks good and excited to have him up.”
It was a wise decision, especially in context...
