Raiders Signing TE Darren Waller To Three-Year, $51M Extension

Adam Schefter reports that the Raiders are signing TE Darren Waller to a three-year, $51 million contract extension. 

Momentum has been building toward a deal, with Vincent Bonsignore reporting early this week there was a sense things could get done in the coming days. 

Waller has reportedly been discussing a deal with the Raiders that would make him the NFL’s highest-paid tight end at $16 million a year. He also just changed agents, going from Klutch Sports to Drew Rosenhaus. However, his new deal will see him earn $7 million over the next two seasons.

“This was one of the most challenging negotiations I’ve encountered,” Rosenhaus told Schefter. “It is very rare for a 30-year-old player with two years left on his contract to get a new deal.”

Waller had two years remaining on his deal and was dramatically underpaid compared to the production Las Vegas has gotten from him the past few years. 

Waller, 30, is a former sixth-round pick of the Ravens. He was in the third year of his four-year, $2.39 million rookie contract when Baltimore waived him coming out of the preseason and later signed him to their practice squad.

The Raiders signed him off the Ravens’ practice squad in 2018 and later locked him up to a three-year extension worth around $9 million per year. 

He was set to make base salaries of $6.25 million in each of the final two years of his deal, and is set to earn $7 million in new money over the next two seasons.

In 2021, Waller appeared in 11 games for the Raiders and caught 55 passes for 665 yards receiving and two touchdowns.