This offseason, there has been an unsettling lack of discussion about Darren Waller’s contract situation. He has two years left on his current deal, but zero guaranteed money, which would usually suggest he is due for a restructure or an extension. And yet, all the attention seems to be paid to an extension for Hunter Renfrow.
Take this answer from Derek Carr about structuring his deal to allow for others to be signed.
“Tim [Younger], my agent, myself and the team, we made sure guys like Chandler [Jones], guys like Davante [Adams], guys like hopefully Hunter [Renfrow] and Foster [Moreau] and those guys can stay here the way we structured it. I went through a heartbreak already last time I signed my contract, my best friend left (Khalil Mack) and I didn’t want that to ever happen again.
And so, this was an opportunity for me to prove to the team, to the organization, to our fans that the way we’re going to structure this is so that we can keep everybody together and really, really have real continuity, really have something to build on. And so, for me, it was like, how do we do that?”
So, you have Carr mentioning two of his top receivers and a tight end. And Darren Waller is not among those names. And there’s no way he could have been thinking it was a normal thing for Waller to enter a season with no guaranteed money on his contract. Carr was a priority for a new deal in part because he was entering a season with no guaranteed money.
I stuck a pin in that eerie feeling I had and it makes this recent report all the more interesting.
According to a recent report from Aaron Nagler at CheeseheadTV, the Packers and Raiders have discussed a trade that would involve Darren Waller.
This fire had smoke previously in a piece by the Athletic that said the Packers initially wanted “an undisclosed player” from the Raiders along with a first-round pick in exchange for Davante Adams.
The Raiders resisted that proposition, but ultimately it didn’t matter because they were informed by the league that a franchise-tagged player such as Adams is not allowed to be traded for another player.
According to this new report, that undisclosed player was Waller. And a deal could happen during the draft this week.
The Raiders may not have been interested in trading Waller and a first-round pick for Adams — not a good deal at all –, but what about if the Packers sent their first pick to the Raiders to get Waller?
Obviously, the Packers have the Raiders’ pick at 22, but they also have their own original selection at 28. This is certainly a possibility worth watching for over the next few days.