The New York Giants coaches won’t admit as much, but in shaping their tight end position, it’s certainly fair to wonder if they envisioned the group emulating what the Kansas City Chiefs have with Travis Kelce being the top receiving target for quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

It was a nice thought, but the problem is the Giants don’t have Kelce on the roster. They instead traded a third-round draft pick they had originally gotten in the Kadarius Toney trade with the Chiefs to acquire Darren Waller from the Raiders, a guy who, when healthy, was pretty good and a decent enough threat as a receiver.

Unfortunately, Waller’s recent injury history continued when he came to New York, as he landed on injured reserve with another hamstring issue that cost him five games. Before that, he was hardly the difference maker on offense that many thought he might be based on watching him in training camp, where he was, at times, simply unguardable.

He recorded 52 catches, 25 of which went for first downs, but his longest catch was only 29 yards, and he only caught 1 TD pass. While part of that was on the offense’s ineptness, Waller cannot be completely absolved.

Soon to be 32nd and with an injury history–not to mention he’s not a blocker nor a contested catch champion–the Giants hopes of Waller being their No. 1 receiver just didn’t pan out to where they might seriously want to reconsider the position’s future.

Speaking of which, let’s look at the rest of the unit.

Daniel Bellinger

Predictably, Bellinger’s role on offense changed with the arrival of Waller, specifically his role as a pass catcher, where he got ten fewer targets in 2023 than in 2022, a season in which he missed four games with an eye injury.