Las Vegas Raiders
After trading Jonnu Smith to Pittsburgh on Monday, Miami has taken an unexpected route to find a new tight end.
Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, the Dolphins are trading for Darren Waller, who is coming out of a one-year retirement to play again.
The Dolphins are sending a 2026 sixth-round pick and a 2027 conditional seventh-round pick to the Giants to complete the deal. While Waller did not play in 2024, New York still had his rights.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Waller will receive a one-year contract worth up to $5 million with Miami.
Waller, who turns 33 in September, broke through with the Raiders in 2019 when he caught 90 passes for 1,145 yards with three touchdowns. He followed that with a 107-catch, 1,196-yard season with the Raiders in 2020, also catching nine TDs.
But Waller had to battle through injuries in 2021 and 2022 with Las Vegas before he was traded to the Giants in 2023. He played just 12 games for New York that season, catching 52 passes for 552 yards with one touchdown before electing to retire last offseason.
Now Waller will join Pharaoh Brown, Tanner Conner, Jalin Conyers, Julian Hill, and Hayden Rucci at tight end on the Dolphins’ roster.
News surfaced today that the Dolphins could be interested in acquiring tight end Michael Mayer from the Raiders. And that could make sense, as new Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is not known for having a lot of work for tight ends like Mayer to do in his offense.
But Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the Raiders have no interest in trading Mayer, and Mayer himself said last week that he believes he’ll have a big role in Kelly’s offense.
In an interview for the Raiders’ YouTube channel, Mayer said he’s fitting right in with the offense in Las Vegas, and with Kelly and head coach Pete Carroll.
“It’s been a great spring here. I’m so excited to be back here, and it’s been very fun. New coaching staff’s been great. Everything’s great,” Mayer said. “These coaches know what I can do and what I can put out on that field, and it’s obviously only going to be better out there with Brock Bowers, with Ian Thomas, those other two tight ends. The tight end room as a whole, we’re very, very close. We’re a close-knit community, and we’ve had a great spring so far, and we’re really, really excited to just help this football team in any way we can, man. We got a lot of good tight ends in that room, and I think Chip knows it. I think PC knows it, and we’re excited to kind of get this thing going.”
Bowers’ tremendous rookie season last year means he’s the clear No. 1 tight end on the roster, but Mayer said the Raiders may use two and even three tight ends on the field at the same time.
“With me and Brock, it’s pretty interesting because we do a lot of 12-personnel stuff, and, you know, this spring we’ve also been doing a lot of 13-personnel too, which has been awesome. It’s been a lot of fun. So, I won’t speak any more to the 13-personnel, I’ll save that for the season, but I got to be ready to do a lot of everything,” Mayer said.k “I got to block, I got to pass pro, and I got to run routes, and I got to be able to catch the ball, and that’s just what it comes down to. If Chip wants to head me out there on that field, I got to be able to run routes, I got to be able to make people miss, and I got to be able to score touchdowns, and when he asks me to block, I’m going to go out there and block 100 percent the most I can, the best I can, and work my hardest and go from there.”
It doesn’t sound like Mayer is going anywhere.
The Dolphins traded their only 2024 Pro Bowler in tight end Jonnu Smith as part of a deal that also sent cornerback Jalen Ramsey to Pittsburgh. Now, the Dolphins are in the market for tight end and cornerback help.
A report earlier today indicated the Dolphins are talking to multiple teams about a trade for a tight end.
One of those teams, according to Omar Kelly of the Miami Herald, is the Raiders as Miami has had its “eye on” tight end Michael Mayer “for a while.”
The Raiders drafted Brock Bowers in the first round in 2024, and he became one of the league’s best tight ends in his rookie season. They also have free agent addition Ian Thomas.
Mayer missed six games in 2024 for personal reasons, and he has only 48 receptions for 460 yards and two touchdowns in 25 games since the Raiders made him a second-round pick in 2023.
But he is due only $1.6 million in 2025 and $2 million in 2026.
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby says that when he’s going up against Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, it’s the best against the best.
Crosby said on ESPN that he and the Raiders know that if they’re going to get to where they want to go, it starts with beating the Chiefs, who have won the AFC West nine years in a row.
“It’s ultimate respect when it comes to them,” Crosby said of the Chiefs. “They’ve earned it. They’ve won three Super Bowls, they’ve got the best quarterback in football. But for us, as a pass rusher, I’m going against the best quarterback. For me, I believe I’m the best pass rusher in the world, so every time we match up it’s match made in heaven.”
Crosby has sacked Mahomes six times, but the Raiders’ record in those games has not been good: The Raiders are just 2-10 against the Chiefs in Crosby’s six seasons. Crosby knows that has to change.
Raiders majority owner Mark Davis has talked plenty about minority owner Tom Brady’s vision and how Brady can be involved with constructing the team.
New G.M. John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll have also spoken about Brady’s positive influence on the team in their first offseason together running the club.
Brady, however, has continued to downplay his role when talking about it publicly — which he most recently did in an interview at the opening of the Hall of Excellence in Las Vegas.
“Well, I’m just a limited partner, so Mark’s the boss,” Brady said in an interview with Paul Gutierrez of the team’s website. “And then Pete does his job and Spy does his job and, I think, we trust them to make the right decisions.
“I’m there as a great sounding board for anything they want to do.”
While Brady did not delve into the specifics of his day-to-day with the team, he noted that he’s “loved” Spytek and Carroll’s first offseason.
“And, again, just trying to contribute in the ways that I can to help the team be the best they can be, on and off the field,” Brady said. “We’ve got a great group of people. I love Mark. He’s done an incredible job getting the team to Vegas, getting the stadium built.
“Pete is new this year; he’s got a big role to play,” Brady added. “And so does John Spytek. And we’re trying to do the right things every day. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Brady complimented Spytek and Carroll on the way they’ve collaborated so far.
“They’ve worked together very well, and there’s a lot of decisions that are made,” Brady said. “Winning games in September starts with what happens in February, March, and April, when no one’s really watching. They’ve been hard at work.
“And our goal is to, you know, win a lot of football games. You’ve got to work hard at it, and it’s all earned, and we’ve got a tough division. There’s a lot of good opponents we face. But it’s going to be up to the guys and their daily commitment to doing the right things.”
Though Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby has not played a down under the team’s new regime, he was still rewarded with a lucrative three-year contract extension in March.
Crosby is grateful for that, but also feels like there’s more on the table for him and the franchise.
“It’s an honor, obviously, having the Raiders with a new staff and new regime come in and show me that type of respect,” Crosby said at the Sack Summit in Las Vegas on Thursday, via Tashan Reed of TheAthletic.com. “It means the world. Like Spytek said, it’s not about what I’ve done, it’s about what I’m about to do. … And we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
As one of the league’s top edge rushers, Crosby would like the chance to play in meaningful games in January. That’s easier said than done, particularly given that the AFC West’s other three teams made it to the playoffs in 2024.
The only time Crosby has played in the postseason was in 2021, when the Raiders fell to the Bengals in the wild card round. But after missing games for the first time in 2024, Crosby is healthy and ready to compete.
“Anytime you go out there, you want to be in a position to win,” Crosby said. “Individual success and things like that are awesome, but it’s not why you play the game. You play to win. We just saw it in the NBA: OKC, just a couple years ago, was one of the worst teams in the league. But they had a lot of young guys, they trusted the process, they developed, and now they’re the world champions.
“We’re trying to win. I want to win so badly. I put everything into it. I want everybody else to think like that. And that’s been my goal, just bringing as many guys along as I possibly can.”
Crosby led the league in tackles for loss in 2022 and 2023. Though he missed five games due to injury in 2024, he still was selected as a Pro Bowler after recording 7.5 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, 20 quarterback hits, and five passes defensed.
Raiders defensive tackle Christian Wilkins underwent surgery in early October to repair a Jones fracture in his foot, but it does not appear he is close to returning.
Wilkins posted a photo from Kyle Van Noy’s charity golf challenge Monday showing his left foot in a walking boot.
Wilkins rehabbed during the entire offseason program, and coach Pete Carroll said last month that it had been a “challenging process” for the six-year veteran.
Wilkins, a first-round pick of the Dolphins in 2019, had not missed a game since 2020 before his injury in an Oct. 6 game against the Broncos last season.
He totaled 17 tackles, two sacks and six quarterback hits in five games his first season with the Raiders after signing a four-year, $110 million deal.
Wilkins, 29, spent his first five seasons with the Dolphins.
Former Raiders offensive lineman Rich Stephens has died, the team announced Monday. He was 60.
“The Raiders Family is mourning the passing of Rich Stephens, who played two seasons with the Silver and Black,” the team wrote in a statement. “The thoughts of the entire Raider Nation are with Rich’s family at this time.”
The Bengals drafted Stephens in the ninth round in 1989.
He did not play a game with the Bengals but did with the Raiders.
Stephens saw action in 16 games in 1993, with one start, and appeared in 13 games with a start in 1995.
It’s not necessarily new, but it’s worth mentioning.
In the recent item from Mike Silver of TheAthletic.com regarding quarterback Sam Darnold’s latest fresh start, in Seattle, Silver reports that Raiders minority owner Tom Brady didn’t want to pursue Darnold as the team’s next quarterback.
That meshes with the reporting that emerged after quarterback Matthew Stafford decided to stay in L.A. Brady and Raiders G.M. John Spytek weren’t enamored with the other veteran options (they had zero interest in Aaron Rodgers), while the coaching staff wasn’t thrilled with the idea of targeting and developing a rookie.
Geno Smith became the compromise candidate, given his clear connection to coach Pete Carroll.
It makes for an interesting compare-and-contrast between two franchises that were, for years, rivals in the AFC West. Did the Seahawks get it right by opting for Darnold? Did the Raiders get it right by focusing on Geno?
The fact that Brady was directly involved in the evaluation of veteran quarterbacks also makes his clumsy effort to disclaim any role in the decision to pass, repeatedly, on quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
“There’s . . . I — I — it’s a good question,” Brady said when asked a fairly broad question about the Sanders free fall. “I wasn’t a part of any evaluation process or to see that.”
While Brady doesn’t seem to be rolling up his sleeves and applying elbow grease to his work with the Raiders, Brady definitely has a voice in the shaping of the roster.
Whether he intended it or not, Brady has created a potentially ideal middle ground that will allow him to claim credit if the Raiders turn things around — and to escape blame if the franchise continues to be far more sluggish than successful.
At the NFL Scouting Combine, former Tennessee wide receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr. opened a lot of eyes by measuring 6-foot-5 and running his 40-yard dash in 4.30 seconds. He was the tallest player ever to run that fast at the Combine.
That led the Raiders to draft Thornton in the fourth round despite minimal production in college: He caught just 65 passes in four seasons of college football, two at Tennessee and two at Oregon. Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly says that a unique talent like Thornton can develop into a productive receiver, even if he hasn’t done it yet.
“I think Dont’e is unique in terms of he’s just a hair under 6-5 and he ran 4.3. There’s not a lot of humans on this planet that do that,” Kelly said, via Raiders.com. “And I think if you had a draw up an outside receiver, you would pick that type of body type, someone that’s got length, someone that’s got a huge catch radius, but also has speed. Sometimes you can get a big guy like that, but he can’t really run, so they can stay with him. So, you add that speed element to him, his ability to sink his hips, his ability to get in and out of cuts.”
The Raiders have a long history of valuing physical attributes like size and speed, and General Manager John Spytek said Raiders owner Mark Davis knows his father, Al Davis, would have loved Thornton.
“Mark joked that was the Al Davis pick of this draft,” Spytek said. “The height, weight, speed, raw traits, athleticism, speed, and I think it’s just focusing on what he can do and what he can be. . . . You watch his target tape, I think it’s pretty impressive. And we think he hasn’t hit his ceiling yet.”
The Raiders think they added a uniquely talented receiver when they brought Thornton to Las Vegas.