Q. How has it been so far playing with Daniel? What's your impression of him?
DARREN WALLER: I've been very impressed with Daniel. Arm talent, intelligence, funny guy. He's got a lot of personality that you really get to see once you get to know him some more.
It's been fun, man. Getting extra throwing sessions in, workout in the weight room. Just having lunch together. You can tell guys are really close around here, and he kind of leads that energy.
Q. Darren, what are your thoughts about this offense? What do you like most about it?
DARREN WALLER: What I love most about it is the challenge. It requires you to know everything that's going on on the field, not just have yourself fixed in one spot, like you need to know the whole picture of the offense. Why the quarterback's looking in a certain direction, why you need to be in a certain window at a certain time. IT forces you to move fast, think fast, and I love challenges. So that's what I like the most about it.
Q. Are you looking at yourself as a tight end, or do you look at yourself as a dominant pass catcher?
DARREN WALLER: I would say just a football player. Like whatever's required of me, I'm willing to do, whether it's more blocking on a certain day, more dirty work on a certain day, catching more passes on a certain day. I don't try to put myself in a box any way.
Q. How do you look at this season for yourself in terms of what you've been through the last couple of years, in terms of not being on the field as much as you've wanted?
DARREN WALLER: I've used this season as an opportunity to get back to having fun and just being available for my teammates every and each week. That's something I haven't been able to do the last couple years, and I'm fully aware of that, and I'm doing everything in my control to be able to be out there and be accountable, be reliable, just being out there every day.
So I'm excited about that challenge. I've done it before, and I'm ready to do it again.
Q. What's different here than where you were before? What feels different? What is different in your mind?
DARREN WALLER: It's different from teem to team. I'm on my third now. There's different cultures everywhere you go, different types of energy. This is a really live place, a really fun place, really empowering place in a way, where you just be yourself and always. As long as you're not putting the team at risk by getting a flag or things like that, you can really let your personality show.
That's what I love about being here. It's just been fun, and it's also been challenging. Guys holding me to a high standard since I got here, and I try to reciprocal that.
Q. Do you find they give you a little piece of ownership, if you will, in the system? Your contributions, your suggestions, and stuff?
DARREN WALLER: Yeah, they value our opinions here. As a player, I feel like a lot of places I've gone, you're told to do things a certain way, and you do those things. But here it's like they ask a lot of questions. They want to know what you're thinking, what do you like to do more. So to offer input is a really cool thing because coach and players got to be in partnership.
We're all together. We shouldn't be clashing with each other. We're all going the same direction.
Q. You mentioned being with new teams before. This time of year when you're with a new team, what are the priorities?
DARREN WALLER: Priorities for me is just putting time in, learning the system. Putting time in building relationships with guys. That's what's really the foundation for where you're trying to go. Things only stack on top of that. I feel like you only go as far as your knowledge because, if you don't know that, you can't play fast, and you can't respond to what a defense is trying to do.
If you don't have relationships with guys, adversity will hit at some point in the season, and guys might start pointing fingers and blaming, and you can't have that. Guys got to stick together.
Q. Darren, what have you learned about Daniel Jones?
DARREN WALLER: I learned he's a smart guy. He's funny. He's driven. He's one of the hardest workers as far as like coming in early for preparation and staying after for recovery and doing what he needs to do, having a routine, having a plan. I feel like that sets the tone when you know like, okay, this guy that's stepping in the huddle telling us what we need to do, where we need to go.
He's really out here putting all the work in and then some, and then he also wants you to have a good time while you do it. That's what I learned about him.
Q. Funny how? How's he funny?
DARREN WALLER: He's got jokes, man. He's got like a low key sense of humor. He's a little more introverted guy kind of like myself. I'm like that too. I feel like we have similar sense of humors.
Q. Has he given you any advice about New York or New Jersey or how to handle it?
DARREN WALLER: He really said embrace it. Not a lot of people get to say they play football in a market like this or a city like this with people as passion excited to be part as his fan base is. It's all about your perspective. Whether you look at it as it's scary or a great opportunity. I view it as a great opportunity.
Q. Have you gotten comfortable with wearing the blue and being here? I would imagine it's always a transition when you come to a new team.
DARREN WALLER: It definitely is. I was saying the other day I saw some pictures from practice. Get used to the blue, man. It's a new color, but it's cool, man. It's cool to have a new chapter and just be able to be out here and play football. It's a blessing to be able to continue to play this game I've been playing since I was like 4 years old. So just try to keep it in that perspective.
Q. You mentioned driven for Daniel Jones. Can you give me an example of him being driven? How you've observed that.
DARREN WALLER: Setting up extra throwing sessions, making sure everybody knows what time, the location. He's in the weight room getting his body worked on, prep work, massages. The first time I met him, we were in Arizona. I came in the house, and he was getting body work done. He was getting his arm ready to throw the next day.
So it's just like he's always got a plan. He's always working towards something. That's what I respect about him.
Q. What was that Arizona trip like?
DARREN WALLER: It was a lot of fun, man. It was like 20-plus guys in a huge house. It was just eating food, playing games, shooting on the court in the back, going out and throwing and running early in the day.
It was just an excellent opportunity to get an early head start on what we install here, getting to learn the system a little bit, but also the relationship building, which we feel like is most important, I know these guys value, and it's cool to see they put that in such a high regard.
Q. When Daniel was talking about you, he said he's a deep thinker. Do you just like to think about other things than football, or is that something you bring to football or what?
DARREN WALLER: It's something I try to bring to everything that I do. I don't hold myself to just football, but I know that, when I'm here, this is my top priority when I'm here. I don't do other things in place of the time I need to put into this.
Yeah, I like to make sure that I'm meditating and putting a lot of thought into why I do certain things on the field, why I do certain things off the field, and making sure that I'm providing value in the fact that the Giants get somebody that's going to make their team better in whatever way they ask them to do. That's why I try to make sure I'm on top of that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports