One of the more puzzling moves of the 2019 offseason was when the Raiders decided to allow tight end Jared Cook leave in free agency without ever offering him a contract extension. Cook was the team’s leading receiver in 2018, catching 68 passes for 896 yards and six touchdowns. He made his first career Pro Bowl that season, but the Raiders still decided to move on.
The biggest explanation for letting Cook leave was Darren Waller, who Jon Gruden fell in love with late in the 2018 season. However, it took a leap of faith by Gruden to rely on Waller to become the team’s starting tight end after just 18 receptions and multiple suspensions in his four previous seasons in the NFL.
That faith by Gruden and the rest of the coaching staff proved to be correct as Waller at a monster season for the Raiders, leading the team in receptions and receiving yards. In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, Waller was named the team’s most improved player in 2019:
(Darren) Waller was the overwhelming bright spot among Oakland’s pass-catching options, rising out of the depths of the Raiders’ roster to catch 90 passes for 1,146 receiving yards. Prior to last season, Waller didn’t even have a 100-yard season to his name in his four-year NFL career. Now, he enters the 2020 season as the fifth-highest graded tight end in the league last season. It’s hard to make a case for anyone else as the team’s most improved player after the kind of bump that Waller saw.
Waller might have made the biggest leap of any player this season as he went from a bottom-of-the-roster player to a Pro Bowl-caliber tight end. But what is most exciting is that we haven’t even seen the ceiling of his game yet.
Waller can still improve significantly as a blocker and he could stand to become a more nuanced route runner. If those two things happen over the next few seasons, Waller has a legitimate chance to be the best tight end in the NFL. Look for the former Georiga Tech receiver turned tight end to be a more well-rounded player in his second full year of starting for the Raiders.
[vertical-gallery id=60514]
[lawrence-newsletter]