The Carolina Panthers are planning to add tight end Darren Waller on a free-agent deal, according to a league source who confirmed the move to The Athletic on condition of anonymity because the contract has not yet been finalized. The terms were not disclosed.
Waller, 33, had remained unsigned through the opening weeks of training camp, even after being ranked No. 88 on The Athletic’s Top 150 free agents list this offseason and ninth among tight ends. His next stop extends a career that has swung from peak production to long stretches of uncertainty.
Last season, Waller played nine games for the Miami Dolphins after returning from a one-year retirement and arriving in a trade from the New York Giants. He made three starts and finished with 283 receiving yards on 24 catches. His six receiving touchdowns were tied with Jaylen Waddle for the team lead and were the second-most he has posted in a single season.
His lone season with the Giants was far less productive. New York acquired him from the Las Vegas Raiders for a third-round pick in 2023, but injuries limited him to 12 games and he ended the year with 552 receiving yards and one touchdown. He retired before the 2024 season, then came back a year later.
Waller’s best football came during a brief run with the Raiders, when he looked like one of the league’s top tight ends. He topped 1,100 receiving yards in back-to-back seasons, and in 2020 he delivered a Pro Bowl year with 107 catches for 1,196 yards and nine touchdowns, all career highs.
His path to that level was anything but straight. A sixth-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens in 2015, Waller’s career was nearly derailed by substance abuse issues that led to a four-game suspension in 2016 and a season-long suspension in 2017. He eventually found his way back onto an active roster in 2018, when the then-Oakland Raiders signed him off the Ravens’ practice squad.
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