Darren Waller Reaches Agreement With Panthers on One-Year Deal
Former Pro Bowl tight end Darren Waller and the Carolina Panthers reached an agreement Wednesday on a one-year deal, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN. The move fills a need Panthers fans have clamored for all offseason, after the team watched free agent tight ends like Isaiah Likely and David Njoku sign elsewhere without making a move of their own.
Waller, 33, joins a tight end room in Carolina that already includes Ja’Tavion Sanders, Tommy Tremble, and Mitchell Evans, a trio that combined for just three touchdowns last season. The former sixth-round pick out of Georgia Tech came out of retirement in 2025 after sitting out the 2024 season, signing with the Miami Dolphins via trade with the New York Giants. He caught 24 of his 34 targets for 283 yards and six touchdowns across nine games with the Dolphins, reuniting there with Darrell Bevell, who has since joined Carolina’s coaching staff as an associate head coach and offensive specialist, a connection that likely played a role in this signing.
At 6-foot-6 and 238 pounds, Waller has long been a matchup problem for defenses in the red zone, using his size and catch radius to consistently win above the rim. He’s caught 26 touchdown passes across his nine NFL seasons, with his best stretch coming during back-to-back 1,000-yard campaigns with the Raiders in 2019 and 2020. Injuries have been a persistent theme throughout his career, though, and 2025 was no exception. He battled a pectoral injury midseason before eventually landing on injured reserve with a groin issue, a pattern that has limited his availability in nearly every stop of his career.
It’s unclear right now exactly how large a role Waller will carve out in Carolina’s offense, but his addition doesn’t figure to be great news for Sanders’ fantasy outlook, given the overlap in what both players offer as receiving threats at the position. The Panthers’ passing attack has also struggled significantly under quarterback Bryce Young, ranking near the bottom of the league in passing yards in each of his three seasons, which tempers expectations for any tight end in this offense regardless of talent.
At best, Waller profiles as a touchdown-dependent TE2 option in two-tight-end fantasy formats for 2026, assuming he can stay on the field. Given his extensive injury history and a crowded, unproven tight end room around him, he’s a name best treated as a low-cost, upside flier rather than a player to count on for weekly production.
