At the break of July, Darren Waller was traded from the New York Giants to the Miami Dolphins, unretiring in the process.
Three months later and four weeks into the 2025 season, Waller made his Dolphins debut and his official return to the NFL playing ranks.
For the Dolphins, the wait was worth it, as Waller hauled in two touchdowns and secured Miami's first win of the season, a 27-21 victory over the New York Jets on Monday night, with an onside kick recovery.
"It's a lot to process," said Waller, who had three receptions for 27 yards. "It's exciting, very exciting, just to be out there, just the whole day. Little bit of fear, little bit of everything, you know? Because I haven't really been practicing a ton, haven't really done a lot with the team, so it's like, alright, I've got to find a way to get back out there and get into a rhythm and just be somebody that this team can rely on and give this team a return on their investment."
That investment aided mightily in the Dolphins winning their first game of the season.
Likely a surprising development to many, it wasn't all that stunning to Waller's new head coach Mike McDaniel.
"You don't put in plays or have players play with the expectation of anything but their best," McDaniel said. "I knew he was fully capable. I just didn't want to overcook it."
Waller, a 2020 Pro Bowler with the Las Vegas Raiders, played his first game since Jan. 7, 2024, with the Giants. Since joining the Fins, Waller had been a standard on the injury report with a hip ailment, with the team slowly acclimating him upon his return.
One game in, at least, the process worked out splendidly.
"Anytime you get the ball in your hands and you score twice, that shows us that you're a viable option for us or you could be a viable option for us," Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said. "That first touchdown, I can't remember the last time I've thrown the ball to dang near the goalposts and somebody catches it like that. That's the kind of guy that we have in Darren Waller."
On the opening drive of the game, Tagovailoa connected with Waller on his first pass of the game for a 14-yard completion and conversion on third-and-5.
On the ensuing drive, the Dolphins were faced with a fourth-and-goal when Waller caught a 4-yard pass for his first touchdown in 708 days, which came in Week 7 of the 2023 season for the Giants.
"That touchdown was oddly enough the same route that was like the first touchdown of my NFL career," Waller said. "Like across the back line, separating from the defender, but that one was like, yeah, really high. Shoutout to Tua for trusting that and putting it up there and giving a guy a chance. We haven't had that much time to build chemistry, but for him to give me an opportunity like that, I'm really grateful. But, yeah, fourth down, gotta-have-it situation, being where you got to be and go get the football."
Then, for the first time in 1,758 days -- all the way back to Week 13 of his 2020 campaign with the Raiders -- Waller tallied a second TD reception in a game. That game was also against the Jets, who found Waller to be uncoverable in the red zone as the tight end pulled down a 9-yard Tagovailoa pass with 11:33 to go in the third quarter.
Leading, 17-3, after Waller's second score and Riley Patterson's ensuing extra point, the Dolphins eventually let the Jets creep back in.
After New York cut Miam's lead to 27-21, however, Waller all but wrapped up a win when he cradled an onside kick.
"It was just fun, man," Waller said. "It felt like when I started playing football as a kid. I feel like I lost it sometimes. Tonight was pretty cool."
Waller's battles with addiction are well publicized. He missed all of the 2017 season for violating the league's substance abuse policy and has been suspended twice in total.
Waller, after a year away from the NFL in retirement and three weeks on the sidelines for the Dolphins, made his official return on Monday and exceeded expectations.
More so, on a night in which Tyreek Hill's gruesome knee injury hung a cloud over the team's first win, Waller supplied some optimism that comeback stories are possible -- even more than one.
"It inspires me and I think it inspires his teammates, a guy that has a love for the game of football and does the journey to get back," McDaniel said. "Everybody I think empathized, but at the same time it's tough when you get to a new team and you're a partial participator and it takes a while.
"All he's done is everything he possibly can and put his best foot forward and has been a phenomenal contributor to our team. I think the guys have felt that he's been doing everything he can to participate, and they were very confident when he was ready to go that he would be what we know him to be."
