The San Francisco 49ers have a ton of uncertainty at tight end right now, with NFL All-Pro and likely future Pro Football Hall of Famer George Kittle coming back from a torn Achilles tendon.
Beyond Kittle, there’s not much for the 49ers to put their faith in as replacements, which is why NFL.com’s Grant Gordon thinks 1 solution might be signing 6-foot-6, 238-pound tight end and former Pro Bowler Darren Waller.
Waller came out of retirement and brought his career back to life with the Dolphins in 2025, playing on a 1-year, $3 million contract — he was incredibly effective with 24 receptions for 283 yards and 6 touchdowns in just 9 games, with 6 starts.
“During a rough 2025 for the Dolphins, Waller’s comeback saw surprising success and offered one of the club’s few highlights,” Gordon wrote on July 31. ” … Waller’s best years were 2019-2020 with the Raiders, turning in back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and earning a Pro Bowl selection.”
Darren Waller’s Strange Path to NFL Stardom
Waller made a bizarre decision to retire and launch a music career following the 2023 season, but returned to the NFL in 2025, when the Dolphins traded a 2026 6th-round pick to the New York Giants for Waller and a 2027 7th-round pick.
The path to NFL stardom for Waller actually began with some pretty tough lessons in Baltimore, where he was a 6th-round pick (No. 204 overall) out of Georgia Tech in the 2015 NFL draft — back when Waller was still a wide receiver.
Waller played 6 games as a rookie before ending the season on injured reserve, then switched to tight end in 2016 but was suspended for the 1st 4 games of the season for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.
He violated the league’s substance-abuse policy again shortly after and was suspended for the entire 2017 season and released in August 2018. The Ravens signed him to the practice squad but didn’t play him in 2018, and he eventually wound up with the Las Vegas Raiders, where he played 4 games that season before putting up consecutive 1,100-yard receiving seasons in 2019 and 2020.
Raiders Made Darren Waller NFL’s Highest-Paid TE
After Waller had 55 receptions for 665 yards and 2 touchdowns in 11 games in 2021, the Raiders made him the highest-paid tight end in NFL history with a 3-year, $51 million contract extension in September 2022.
After playing just 9 games due to injuries in 2022, the Raiders traded him to the New York Giants just 6 months after he signed his new deal.
“Obviously, Darren was a big part of what our plan was, obviously by the contract he signed,” Raiders owner Mark Davis told ESPN. “Things didn’t work out last year, just based on health. You know, we didn’t quite get the Darren Waller that could have really helped us even more.”
For the 49ers, how Kittle recovers could impact the trajectory of their season as much as any player on the roster.
“San Francisco really needs a healthy season — something it seemingly has never experienced in franchise history,” Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon wrote on July 1. “Kittle’s presence is critical for that offense, as he’s Brock Purdy‘s experienced and reliable safety valve.”
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