Breakout TE Waller receives big payday
ALAMEDA » Less than a year after the Raiders signed Darren Waller off the practice squad of the Baltimore Ravens, they made him one of the highest-paid tight ends in the NFL in terms of average salary.
“It’s surreal to me,” Waller said Thursday, a day after signing a contract extension that will take him through the 2023 season. “Last year I was sitting in that same room signing that contract from Baltimore. It was like, `I just don’t want to mess this up.’ It’s incredible, like a new chapter.”
Contract details were not available, but the NFL Network reported it is worth $9 million per season.
The only tight ends currently making $9 million or more in terms of average salary are Jimmy Graham of Green Bay ($10 million), Travis Kelce of Kansas City ($9,368,400), Jordan Reed of Washington ($9,350,000) and Kyle Rudolph of Minnesota ($9,025,000).
Waller is making $720,000 this season and was scheduled for restricted free agency, meaning he still would have been under the Raiders’ control. But when coach Jon Gruden said last week “I don’t know if there’s a better tight end in football” it was apparently more than hyperbole.
A sixth-round draft pick out of Georgia Tech, Waller is a recovering addict who served a season-long suspension in 2017. He has been open about his struggles with alcohol and drugs, believing his story can help others. Waller conceded having a contract that takes him into the future is difficult to process in conjunction with the one- day-at-atime approach that has helped to save his career, as well as his life.
“Things that are too far down the road will give me a little anxiety, but I know there are peo
ple here that will help me reach that point and make great things happen along the way,” Waller said. “I’m not doing it by myself and the team expressed that ever since the first day I walked in the door.”
Signed Nov. 26 of last season, Waller met with the player engagement department as well as line coach Tom Cable (he has a family member in recovery) before ever looking at a playbook.
After catching six passes for 75 yards in four games last season, the Raiders saw enough in Waller to let Jared Cook go in free agency without making an offer. Cook caught 68 passes for 896 yards. It’s been a breakout year for Waller, who has 37 receptions for 359 yards.
Waller said the Raiders initiated contact with his agent after returning from London.
“It just shows I can contribute to a team and be somebody that’s reliable, that can be counted on,” Waller said. “That wasn’t the case before, so I take pride in doing that, and everything else and foremost just be a part of the family. That’s what it’s all about for me.” GUENTHER: BURFICT SUSPENSION A ‘WITCH HUNT’ » Paul Guenther has always been in the corner of Vontaze Burfict, so it wasn’t surprising that the Raiders’ defensive coordinator took the 12-game suspension of his middle linebacker personally.
“I think it was a witch hunt from the beginning, quite honestly,” Guenther said Thursday. “Somebody in the league didn’t want him playing football, and they got what they wanted.”
The day after a 31-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts, Burfict was suspended by the NFL after being flagged for a helmet-to-helmet hit against Colts tight end Jack Doyle. Burfict appealed the suspension, but it was upheld.
Guenther was Burfict’s linebackers coach in Cincinnati and eventually defensive coordinator. The two have a close relationship and Guenther has backed Burfict through a career which has included several instances of alleged dirty play. Burfict was suspended for the first three games of the 2016 season for a helmet-to-helmet hit against Antonio Brown in a playoff game and took another three- game suspension (reduced from five on appeal) for a preseason hit against the Chiefs’ Anthony Sherman. Burfict reportedly has more than $4 million in fines and forfeited game checks. That includes a four-game suspension in 2018 for violating the NFL policy on performance enhancing drugs.
Burfict, Guenther said, had no idea he was one hit away from a season-long suspension.
“There’s no standard. That’s the issue I have,” Guenther said. “There’s no `Hey, next time you do this, you’re gone for the year. Maybe your career.’ You can warn a guy. Put it in writing. The next time this happens, you’re done. That’s unfair to the kid, it’s unfair to all the players around the league. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. Now they’ve opened up a whole can of worms as far as the next guy who’s going to do it.”
Guenther believes the NFL made an example out of Burfict.
“We’re going to do this to this one guy, this one guy driving 38 miles an hour in a 30 mile an hour zone, with the cop looking for one guy doing it, where all the players are held to the same standard,” Guenther said.