The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have kept their heads above water at tight end thanks to Cade Otton in recent years, and rewarded him with a 3-year, $30 million contract this offseason.
It’s worth asking if the Buccaneers have ever considered creating depth behind Otton — it hasn’t seemed like it — but NFL.com’s Grant Gordon thinks they have an opportunity to do so by signing free-agent tight end and former Pro Bowler Darren Waller.
Waller came out of retirement and brought his career back to life with the Dolphins in 2025, playing on a 1-year, $3 million contract — he was incredibly effective with 24 receptions for 283 yards and 6 touchdowns in just 9 games, with 6 starts.
“During a rough 2025 for the Dolphins, Waller’s comeback saw surprising success and offered one of the club’s few highlights,” Gordon wrote on July 31. ” … Waller’s best years were 2019-2020 with the Raiders, turning in back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and earning a Pro Bowl selection.”
Darren Waller’s Strange Path to NFL Stardom
Waller made a bizarre decision to retire and launch a music career following the 2023 season, but returned to the NFL in 2025, when the Dolphins traded a 2026 6th-round pick to the New York Giants for Waller and a 2027 7th-round pick.
The path to NFL stardom for Waller actually began with some pretty tough lessons in Baltimore, where he was a 6th-round pick (No. 204 overall) out of Georgia Tech in the 2015 NFL draft — back when Waller was still a wide receiver.
Waller played 6 games as a rookie before ending the season on injured reserve, then switched to tight end in 2016 but was suspended for the 1st 4 games of the season for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.
He violated the league’s substance-abuse policy again shortly after and was suspended for the entire 2017 season and released in August 2018. The Ravens signed him to the practice squad but didn’t play him in 2018, and he eventually wound up with the Las Vegas Raiders, where he played 4 games that season before putting up consecutive 1,100-yard receiving seasons in 2019 and 2020.
Raiders Made Darren Waller NFL’s Highest-Paid TE
After Waller had 55 receptions for 665 yards and 2 touchdowns in 11 games in 2021, the Raiders made him the highest-paid tight end in NFL history with a 3-year, $51 million contract extension in September 2022.
After playing just 9 games due to injuries in 2022, the Raiders traded him to the New York Giants just 6 months after he signed his new deal.
“Obviously, Darren was a big part of what our plan was, obviously by the contract he signed,” Raiders owner Mark Davis told ESPN. “Things didn’t work out last year, just based on health. You know, we didn’t quite get the Darren Waller that could have really helped us even more.”
The Buccaneers actually used a draft pick on a tight end in 2026, taking LSU’s Bauer Sharp in the 6th round (No. 185 overall).
“After trading picks 195 and 229 to the Raiders, the Bucs used pick No. 185 on a 6-foot-5, 249-pound target who actually operated as a Wildcat quarterback and inline tight end at Southeastern Louisiana before transferring to Oklahoma and then LSU,” ESPN’s Jenna Laine wrote in April. “He has 4.63 speed, which doesn’t wow you, but he’s high energy and operates well underneath. He’s an aggressive blocker but he has struggled with penalties — his 10 penalties were tied for the most among FBS tight ends since 2024. He also had some issues with drops — 7.6% in his two seasons as an FBS player — but cleaned that up significantly in 2025.”
Buccaneers Urged to Sign $51 Million Free Agent Tight End