Raiders TE Darren Waller ranked at No. 38 in PFF’s top-101 players of 2020
After a breakout season in 2019, Darren Waller was somehow able to top his numbers in 2020. He became one of the league’s most dominant pass-catchers despite this being just the second full year he’s played the tight end position. Waller earned the first Pro Bowl nomination of his career and he only appears to be getting better.
In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they named their top-101 players from the 2020 season. Not surprisingly, Waller showed up on the list for the second-straight season. But this time, his ranking jumped dramatically.
PFF ranked Waller as the No. 38 best player in the NFL this season with only Travis Kelce ranking higher at tight end. Here is what the site had to say about the Raiders’ best player:
“Travis Kelce was peerless this season, but Darren Waller was incredibly good in his own right for the Las Vegas Raiders. Waller actually had more targets (140) and catches (107) than Kelce over the regular season and averaged the same 5.6 yards per reception after the catch. With Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback, Kelce enjoyed a higher average depth of target than Waller and subsequently gained more yards overall, but Waller was a near equally unrecoverable force for the Raiders without other major receiving threats taking attention away from him.”
At just the age of 28, Waller still has several more quality years left. His body doesn’t have the same sort of miles on it that a Kelce or Rob Gronkowski have since Waller essentially didn’t play football from 2015-2018. He should be reaching his prime by 2021 or 2022.
If Waller can continue to expand his route tree and improve as a blocker, it wouldn’t be a total surprise if he became the league’s best tight end sooner rather than later. He’s got that type of potential. Simply put, Darren Waller is a superstar.
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