Giants activate Waller ahead of game vs. Saints

Last updated: 2023/12/17 at 1:42 AM

BigP Published December 17, 2023

Jordan Raanan, ESPN Staff WriterDec 16, 2023, 04:23 PM ET
Close

NEW ORLEANS — New York Giants tight end Darren Waller was activated off injured reserve for Sunday’s matchup with the New Orleans Saints, the team announced on Saturday.

Waller had his 21-day window to be activated opened this week, and was a limited participant in practice Thursday and Friday. After taking team reps, he was officially listed as questionable.

The former Pro Bowl tight end has missed the past five games with a hamstring injury.

Waller said there were “no issues” at practice this week. He opened it up, ran routes at full speed and felt ready to play Sunday against the Saints.

The Giants (5-8) are one-game back of the final wild-card spot in the NFC after winning three straight games with undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito at quarterback. Waller, 31, led the Giants with 384 yards receiving at the time of his injury. He has 36 catches and one touchdown in his first year in New York.

The Giants were expecting big things from Waller after trading for him this offseason. It cost them a third-round pick (No. 100 overall in the 2023 NFL draft) and he was supposed to be quarterback Daniel Jones‘ No. 1 receiver.

Now, Waller returns as an additional target for DeVito, who started the season on the practice squad. Waller admitted this week he hadn’t caught many passes from the rookie quarterback.

Waller is expecting to have a somewhat limited workload in his return. He’s used to playing 100% of the offensive snaps when healthy. That is not going to happen in New Orleans.

“Probably not 100% of the workload. There will probably be a certain number of reps they’re looking at as far as like a pitch count,” Waller said Friday. “I don’t know how many that would be. I don’t know if it would be certain situations in the game. I’ve just got to figure it out, but it would probably be a lot less than 100%.”