Daren Waller is one of the league’s best tight ends when healthy, and the New York Giants knew it. Brian Daboll and the Giants realized, despite their Divisional Round appearance in last year’s playoffs, they needed more talent around them if they were going to take the next step.
A group comprised of Isaiah Hodgins, Sterling Shepard, and Wan’Dale Robinson, plus your starting tight end Daniel Bellinger is OK, but it is not going to scare too many defenses.
A tight end is a quarterback’s best friend. If you can go out and get one of the league’s best TEs, you should do that, and that’s what the Giants did.
Darren Waller Trade Details
Waller was traded on March 14, 2022.
The Giants received:
The Las Vegas Raiders received:
- The Giants’ 2023 third-round compensatory pick, No. 100 overall
The Las Vegas Raiders traded Waller in exchange for a third-round pick. The pick was No. 100 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft and originally belonged to the Kansas City Chiefs as the compensatory pick that they collected by the Chicago Bears hiring Ryan Poles to be their general manager.
The Giants acquired the selection by sending former first-round pick wide receiver Kadarius Toney to the Chiefs during the 2022 season and parlayed all of this, in essence, to acquiring a starting tight end in Waller.
Players Involved in the Darren Waller Trade
There were no additional players traded in the Waller deal.
The Waller swap was a clean-cut player-for-pick swap that both teams stood to benefit from.
Who Won the Darren Waller Trade?
It is hard to look at this trade and not feel like the big winner of it all was the Giants.
For a third-round pick that wasn’t even theirs to begin with, the Giants were able to pick up a dynamic pass-catching tight end that is feared across the NFL as one of the league’s best when healthy.
A third-round selection is nothing to scoff at either, though, and while the Giants got the ready-made player to help now, a team in a position like the Raiders can feel good about collecting a top-100 draft pick to help build their team for the future.
Daniel Jones gets another weapon and Daboll strengthens his offensive unit, while the Giants are focused on loading up and making another run at a playoff appearance as they hope Waller is the piece that puts them over the top in 2023.
