Omar Kelly: Darren Waller, and Dolphins taking a risk on each other

Omar Kelly, Miami Herald on Jul 3, 2025

Published in Football

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

MIAMI — Forget about talent being the driving force for employment.

The NFL — if not all of professional sports — is much like the real world. It’s about who you know, and who vouches for you. Not what you know, or how hard you work.

It certainly helps to have talent, but connections are just as important, if not more.

The Miami Dolphins used some of their connections Tuesday to land a former Pro Bowl tight end a day after trading cornerback Jalen Ramsey, tight end Jonnu Smith and a 2027 seventh-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and a 2027 fifth-round pick.

Darren Waller, who abruptly retired from football last year, returns to the NFL in Miami, which traded a conditional 2026 sixth-round pick to the New York Giants in exchange for Waller and a 2027 seventh-round pick.

Miami signed Waller to a one-year deal that could be worth $5 million, adding the 33-year-old to a room that presently features Julian Hill, Tanner Conner and Pharaoh Brown.

When the dust settled — and at this rate it might not for a while because Miami still needs cornerback and offensive line help — the Dolphins subsequently swapped out two Pro Bowlers (Ramsey and Smith) for another two Pro Bowlers (Fitzpatrick and Waller).

And it’s likely that Waller’s history with offensive coordinator Frank Smith, who coached him for his three breakout seasons in Las Vegas, is what sold him on joining the Dolphins.

Smith was Waller’s tight ends coach when the nine-year veteran began his sobriety from a battle with drug and alcohol addiction.

Waller struggled with opioids (like oxycodone), Xanax, cocaine and alcohol. His addiction began in his college years and continued into his professional career, impacting his performance and leading to multiple NFL suspensions.

His journey to sobriety began after a near-fatal overdose in 2017, and he seemingly walked away from the NFL last season after noticing he was picking up “bad habits” again, according to a conversation he had with the I Am Athlete podcast.

“I’ve been busy since I retired. There was a lot of work I thought I was doing when I was sober. Oh, [I’m a] sobriety hero. But there were a lot of roots that needed to be gotten to, and worked through, and healed, and changed. In doing that work I’ve felt I’ve been trapped in what I should be doing, or pleasing other people,” Walker told I Am Athlete. “[I was] trying to find a way to be seen as the man in the room. Now that I don’t feel like I need to do that anymore, that’s [the source] for a lot of the gas in the tank.”

According to a "Men’s Health" article on Waller, which was published earlier this year, him being traded to the Giants in 2023 “exposed everything that was going on within me.

“It put me back in the space of feeling isolated. I didn’t know people in [New York],” Waller said. “So I just retreated back to old habits.”

Waller divorced WNBA superstar Kelsey Plum in April of 2024, and has spent most of last year undergoing therapy, apparently learning about attachment theory, a psychological framework that seeks to understand behavior by focusing on people’s relationships with their caregivers.

In the "Men’s Health" article, Waller says that therapy helped him identify as an avoidant, someone who is insecure and struggles with emotional intimacy.

“I wasn’t doing drugs and alcohol anymore, but the hole was still there,” Waller said. “There are still childhood traumas that needed to be unpacked.”

Waller clearly never ruled out returning to the NFL, but he’s seemingly missed the game, and reuniting with Smith could help him get his life, and career back on track.

“I don’t even know if playing football was a love,” Waller told "Men’s Health." “It was just that I’m good at it, and I know what it’s going to get me: some bread and for people to look at me and say, ‘Oh, that’s Darren Waller.' ”

Now, it’ll be ‘Oh, that’s Darren Waller, the new Miami Dolphin,’ who either has a third act in the NFL, or walks away from the game against in an effort to save himself.

At least this time he has Smith along with him for the journey again.