Las Vegas Raiders Send Darren Waller To New York Giants For 2023 NFL Pick

Roquan Smith, Chicago Bears — The New York Giants will get more receiving help with the impending coming of Jamie Waller Quinn Harris/Getty Images

KEY POINTS

The Giants are acquiring Darren Waller to ramp up their receiving corps
The Waller deal spares the Raiders $12 million in salary cap
Waller is expected to align with Daniel Jones for the Giants

The New York Giants are addressing their defensive shortcomings, and it appears they may have landed on the person of tight end Darren Waller.

According to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the Las Vegas Raiders have traded Waller to the New York Giants in exchange for a third-round draft pick.

The trade remains unofficial since deals can only be validated by Thursday, March 16.

However, NBC Sports adds that the Giants and the Raiders have already agreed in principle to the deal.

Waller is considered one of the elite tight ends in the NFL. He is a former sixth-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft and has evolved into one of the legitimate stars with the Raiders in 2019.

His career continued to grow in 2020, leading to his first and only Pro Bowl nod.

Across both seasons, the 30-year-old player hauled in 197 total receptions, while racking up 2,341 yards and 12 touchdowns.

However, things have not boded well for Waller in the last two years as he missed about 14 games due to injury.

Last year, Waller made just 28 receptions for 388 yards and three touchdowns while appearing in just nine games.

Once the trade is made official, the Maryland native gets a new lease on a fresh start with the Giants.

New York is sorely in need of pass catchers, someone who can complement Daniel Jones who agreed to a four-year, $160 million contract extension last week.

Once the Waller deal is made official, the Giants are hoping that this move would be enough to help them towards a potential return trip to the NFL playoffs this coming season.

For the Raiders, dealing away Waller always makes sense in the financial sense as he carried a $12 million salary cap hit this season, likely one of the reasons why the team decided to move on.

The pick that the Raiders will be receiving is the same one acquired by the Giants from the Kansas City Chiefs back in October, a trade that involved Kadarius Toney.

That trade told heavily on the Giants with Jones left with an inexperienced receiving corpse according to ESPN.