Waller Switched, Like Other Raiders TEs

Darren Waller has on shoulders the high expectations that come with being a Las Vegas Raiders TE, and he has shown the adaptability of past greats in the Silver and Black.

Darren Waller is only the latest member of the Las Vegas-Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders, who has been moved from another position to tight and become a star.

The 6-6 255-pound Waller wasn’t quite as big when he played wide receiver at Georgia Tech and was selected in the sixth round (No. 204 overall) by the Baltimore Ravens in 2015, and he continued to play that position.

However, when he came to the Raiders in 2018, Waller was moved to tight end, and all he has done since is catch 286 passes for 3,469 yards and 17 touchdowns to rank 11th on the Silver and Black’s all-time receiving list, second among tight ends, and make the Pro Bowl in 2020.

“Waller has the size and body control to move to tight end,” Marcus Mosher wrote on Raider Wire in 2018, and that was exactly what happened.

However, this started with the Silver and Black back in 1963, when Al Davis became a coach and general manager of the Raiders and traded with the Houston Oilers for running back Billy Cannon, who won the Heisman Trophy at LSU in 1959.

To the amazement of many, Davis moved speedy Cannon to end two years later tight, where he helped change the definition of the position by being a player who could beat linebackers and even defensive backs deep down the field in the “Vertical Passing Game” of the Raiders.

“They put him at tight end,” said Tom Flores, the Raiders quarterback at the time. “I couldn’t figure it out at the time, but what the hell did I know? I welcomed him because he could run like a deer. Up until that point, our tight ends were big, lumbering guys and that was the prototype. Teams didn’t use five or six defensive backs in those days, so we could always get a mismatch with Billy.”

Cannon, who didn’t move to tight end until 1965, caught 134 passes for 2,268 yards, a 16.9-yard average, and 25 touchdowns in six seasons with the Raiders. His biggest season came in 1967 when he caught 32 passes for 629 yards and ten touchdowns as the Raiders won their first-ever AFL Championship and reached Super Bowl II before losing to the Green Bay Packers. He was named All-AFL in 1967-68-69.

After that, under Davis, the Raiders moved several more players from other positions to tight end, including Dave Casper, Todd Christensen, Ethan Horton, Warren Bankston, Ken Herock, and Derrick Jensen.

Casper, of course, was the best, as he moved from tackle to tight end and carved out a career that took him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Raiders selected him in the second round (No. 45 overall) of the 1974 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame, where he played different positions on the offensive line.

“When we first got David Casper, he showed up for his rookie camp weighing 260 pounds,” recalled Flores, who by then was an assistant coach. “Toward the end of practice one day, Coach (John) Madden sent him over to the offensive linemen and had him work with them for a little while.

“David was swearing up and down that wasn’t a good move for him. … He came back a few weeks later at 235 pounds with a lot more speed and quickness, and then he showed what he could really do (at tight end).”

The rest is NFL history.

Even though he was sometimes the third option in an offense that included Hall of Fame wide receivers Fred Biletnikoff and Cliff Branch, Casper is 12th on the Raiders’ all-time receiving list with 255 receptions for 3,294 yards and 35 touchdowns while being selected All-Pro four times, to five Pro Bowls and made the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team.

Casper caught 53 passes for 691 yards and ten touchdowns as the Raiders posted a 13-1 regular season record in 1976 and went on to capture win Super Bowl XI when he caught four passes for 70 yards and the first touchdown of the game in a 32-14 victory over the Minnesota Vikings at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Christensen was another reluctant tight end when he signed with the Raiders as a free agent fullback in 1979 after being selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round (No. 56 overall) in the 1978 NFL Draft out of BYU played briefly with the New York Giants.

“I wanted to play running back, but in my second year with the Raiders I finally agreed, reluctantly, to play tight end,” said Christensen, who went on to become a starter in his third season. “It worked out pretty good, I guess.”

All Christensen did was become the fourth-leading receiver and top tight end in Raiders history with 461 receptions for 5,872 yards and 41 touchdowns, including 92 catches for 1,247 yards and 12 scores in 1983 and 95 grabs for 1,153 yards and eight TDs in 1986—leading the NFL in receptions in both years.

Christensen played on the Raiders’ Super Bowl XV and XVIII champions, was a five-time All-Pro and a five-time Pro Bowl selection, and the big question is why he is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Waller shattered franchise records in 2020 when he caught 107 passes for 1,196 yards and nine touchdowns, but he has missed 14 games with injuries in the last two seasons when he made 83 catches for 1,053 yards.

Some of the other Raiders moved to tight end also were productive, but Cannon, Casper, and Christensen were the best.

Hopefully, Waller can remain healthy and rank with them one day.

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