Darren Waller signs one-year deal with Panthers

Darren Waller isn't done yet. The former Pro Bowl tight end agreed to a one-year deal with the Carolina Panthers on Wednesday, Adam Schefter reported, giving Bryce Young and this offense a proven veteran target after Waller put up 6 touchdowns in 9 games for Miami last season.

The financial terms haven't been disclosed, but if it looks anything like the low-risk, prove-it deal Waller signed to join the Dolphins last year, this is a cheap bet on a guy who still has juice left. Jordan Schultz's report leaned into that exact production number from Miami as the selling point for why Carolina wanted in.

There's a connective tissue thread here too. Waller spent last season working with Darrell Bevell in Miami, and Bevell is now the Panthers' associate head coach and offensive specialist after making the same jump to Carolina. That's not nothing when a 33-year-old tight end is picking a new home in August.

Waller's path back to relevance has been anything but linear. He retired in June 2024 after one frustrating season with the Giants, citing a health scare that reshaped his perspective, then unretired in July 2025 when Miami traded for him. He rewarded that leap with 2 touchdowns in his Dolphins debut on Monday Night Football and kept producing from there. Now he's chasing a third act in Carolina.

Fans immediately started connecting the dots on what this means for the Panthers' skill-position group as a whole, with Waller sliding in alongside the names already stacked in that room.

It also gives Young a big-bodied red-zone option he hasn't really had in Carolina, and it's a low-cost swing for a team trying to speed up its rebuild. Not everyone was strictly serious about the news, though — Hayden Winks used the moment to needle Waller with an offseason Hyrox joke that had nothing to do with football.

Training camp battles for reps at tight end just got a lot more interesting, and with 28 days until kickoff by SleeperNFL's own count, Waller doesn't have much time to get up to speed in a new offense. Worth watching how quickly Carolina works him into the game plan once pads come on.