Giants' Darren Waller: 'Would Be Ideal' to Make Retirement Decision by 2024 NFL Draft

New York Giants tight end Darren Waller said it "would be ideal" to tell the team if he will be retiring this offseason prior to the start of the 2024 NFL Draft, according to The Athletic's Vic Tafur.

"That would be ideal, but I also don't want to put that on myself," he said. "It's gotta be before summer break, for sure."

Waller has played eight NFL seasons, most recently making 52 catches for 552 yards and a touchdown for the Giants in 2024.

He was limited by a hamstring injury during the campaign, marking the third straight season during which he has missed at least five games due to injury.

Waller still has three years remaining on the deal he signed with the Las Vegas Raiders. He would stand to make a base salary of $10.52 million with more than $1 million in incentives if he returns to the NFL next season, per Spotrac.

The NFL draft begins April 25, while the Giants' offseason workout program begins April 15.

"I have to make a decision at some point," Waller said, according to Tafur. "You have to be 100 percent bought in, for the grind. And I have to make sure I am bringing that to the table, or it's a disservice to the guys I am suiting up with. I also want to give the team time, where whichever way I go, they can prepare for next season."

Waller said in March that the Giants hadn't given him in ultimatum, but that he had "a general awareness of pretty soon they may want to make a decision in the draft or things like that," The Athletic's Dan Duggan reported.

According to Duggan, Waller said he started thinking about retiring after the 2023 season, but that he was still "in the middle" and "could go either direction" as of March.

Waller, a sixth-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2015 NFL draft, faced trouble early in his career when he was suspended for the 2017 season for a NFL substance-abuse rule violation.

He returned to rack up back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons with the Raiders, including a Pro Bowl campaign in 2020, and eventually earn the extension that made him the most highly-paid tight end in the NFL.

The Giants then traded for Waller last March in exchange for the No. 100 pick in the 2023 draft.

The New York Post's Paul Schwartz and Ryan Dunleavy reported in early March that the Giants want Waller back "and hope he can stay healthy and be a more robust contributor to the offense than he was in 2023."

The team would take on $7.8 million in dead cap while accruing $6.2 million in cap savings if Waller retires, per Bobby Skinner of Talkin' Giants.