Raiders News: Jon Gruden & Derek Carr Give Praise To Darren Waller After Performance Against Saints
Darren Waller
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Las Vegas Raiders opened up Allegiant Stadium in style on Monday night, defeating the New Orleans Saints, 34-24, to improve to 2-0 on the season.

The unquestioned star of the game was Raiders tight end Darren Waller as Derek Carr force-fed him, targeting 16 times which would up ending in 12 receptions for 103 yards and a touchdown.

Waller was finding ways to get open all night long, and Carr was hitting him in stride as the Saints simply had no answer for that duo.

After the game, Raiders head coach Jon Gruden offered some praise for Waller after his outstanding day, via Levi Edwards of Raiders.com:

“Darren Waller is a great player, and our job is to get him the ball,” said Coach Gruden. “I’ll take him out of any of the tight ends, and I know (Greg) Kittle and (Travis) Kelce are as good as they get, but Waller is right up there with them.

“This is his second year playing the position, and it’s astonishing what this man can do.”

Carr also had some praise for Waller, although the performance was not something he was surprised by:

“I think he did an exceptional job,” Carr said. “Like I told Lisa Salters and everybody in the production meeting, whoever watches this game gets to see everything about Darren Waller that we know of him to be. He’s not only one of the best players in the NFL, but he’s one of the best humans in the NFL. I love that man; he’s a great guy, great player and I’m glad to be his quarterback. I’m honored.”

Waller developed into one of the best tight ends in football in 2019 and seems to be getting even better in his second full season with the team.

He is one of the reasons the Raiders’ offense is clicking on all cylinders right now and is just happy to be a part of it:

“Our offensive balance right now is amazing,” Waller said. “We could see it coming from training camp and once we first got together as a team and started doing stuff, you could tell there’s a lot of guys that deserve to have opportunities to get the rock because they’re going to make things happen. I’m just thankful that I can be apart of that group and a part of that balance, someone they can count on to make plays whenever I’m called upon. Whatever (my) numbers look like, that’s cool with me, but as long as our balance is there and we keep attacking and keep the defense on their heels, that’s all I want.”

With Carr, Waller and Josh Jacobs all playing at a high level, the Raiders have a variety of different ways to beat teams offensively.

If they want to win the AFC West though then they will have to keep up with the Kansas City Chiefs’ high-powered offense, so this team’s biggest challenges are still ahead of them.