Might Waller Be Done Before He Starts?

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel suggested a drastic move could be coming with tight end Darren Waller soon

Miami Dolphins tight end Darren Waller | Alain Poupart/Miami Dolphins On SI

Darren Waller might make his Miami Dolphins debut this weekend, but it also could turn out that the team pulls the plug on the Waller experiment entirely.

The ritual of head coach Mike McDaniel being asked whether this is the week that Waller gets involved continued Wednesday, and after McDaniel said he wasn't sure it would happen against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium in the team's home opener Sunday, he low-key delivered some significant soon.

In simple terms, McDaniel suggested the Dolphins might just decide they're done waiting for Waller.

"I expect to not know what to expect until later," McDaniel said. "Like I told you, he's working at this one, and as long as everything goes we'll have a chance.

"But we may get to get to the point and recognize that the risk is is too great for the rest of the season. So in that case, we will have to do what's best for the team. So I wouldn't say that I'm not expecting, nor or expecting. I'm kind of open minded to how each and every day progresses."

Whoa!

"Risk too great for the rest of the season" and "will have to do what's best for the team" sure sounds like a parting of the ways could be in the books for Waller and the Dolphins.

And at this point, would anybody really be overly shocked?

Let's face it, the whole situation with Waller has been weird from the start, with him coming out of retirement to join the Dolphins via a trade with the New York Giants, but then starting training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list, staying there until the final week of training camp, and then landing on the injury report last week with a hip injury that McDaniel said occurred before practice last Wednesday, a practice that Waller was scheduled to sit out as part of a load management program.

Again, just weird.

As a reminder, the Dolphins acquired Waller along with a conditional seventh-round pick from the Giants for a conditional sixth-round pick, and it's not a stretch to assume the conditions attached to the trade dealt with playing time.

Regardless, even if the trade terms remain as they were, it's not an exorbitant price.

What's more problematic for the Dolphins is they didn't address the tight end position outside of the Waller deal once they sent Jonnu Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the big trade that also involved Jalen Ramsey and Minkah Fitzpatrick, leaving themselves with Julian Hill and Tanner Conner as the players to handle the tight end position.

Yes, the Dolphins did pick up Greg Dulcich from the New York Giants and they also have Hayden Rucci on the practice squad, but there simply isn't a proven commodity on the roster at the position.

The Dolphins did host Noah Fant on a free agent visit before he signed with the Cincinnati Bengals, and maybe they might have made a better offer had they known (or better anticipated) not to count on Waller.

Maybe McDaniel was sending a message to Waller that the team's patience in him getting ready to appear in a game was running thin or running out. Who knows?

Again, with everything dealing with Waller this summer, there's a lot of mystery.

But the time for answers clearly is approaching.

WALLER SHOWS UP ON INJURY REPORT

The first indication of any kind of hip injury happened ahead of the season opener against Indy.

"Well, while trying to prevent a setback, he had a setback before practice," McDaniel said. " So what does that mean? It means he's being challenged. The most eager player to play has another challenge. So I know he's up for it, but I don't think he's going to play this week, which wasn't planned, but the way I look at it is try not to, with your first player that comes out of retirement, try not to have a plan that you have no experience with. But we'll work through it and there it is."

McDaniel indicated that Waller is dealing with a hip strain.

"We had already planned not to practice him anyway, something that we didn't know if it was what it was until we knew what it was. But we were planning for a setback prevention, and he had a setback."