In January, after Lawrence Cager’s eight-catch, 69-yard game against the Eagles, Giants tight ends coach Andy Bischoff compared Cager’s unique skill set to a special player:
Darren Waller.
“Those types of guys — whether it’s a Darren Waller or whomever that is — are out there, that are a little bit of an untraditional guy,” Bischoff said then. “But if you can master enough of the position to draw a tie in some areas, you can really help your team. And Lawrence is on a journey, and he’s taken an upswing.”
That name had come up before.
The Jets’ GM called to re-sign Cager entering the 2022 offseason with an idea for the wide receiver who’d once walked his halls.
“Joe Douglas calls my agent and tells me, ‘We want to make him like Darren Waller,’” Cager, 25, told the Daily News with a smile on Tuesday. “So I’m contemplating, because my whole career, even in college recruiting, a couple schools wanted me to play tight end. And I fought it like no, I’m a receiver. And now I’m sitting in my room like, ‘I see where the league is going. I can be like Darren. I do have a skill set. I know I can play in this league. So why not?’”
And why not go straight to the Waller for advice on how to do it? That’s what Cager did. He traveled to Atlanta to train with the then-Raiders tight end for about two weeks last offseason.
“I actually got with Darren and trained with him for a couple weeks, just to pick his brain and learn how he made the transition,” Cager said on the “Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard” podcast. “What little things he did his first year making the transition, how he picked up playbooks, blocking, running routes, what was different from receiver coming to tight end.”
Little did they know Waller would be traded to the Giants this offseason, and now the guy Cager was always being compared to, the player he’d trained with, the tight end he emulated, was now going to be his teammate. He couldn’t have been more excited when he heard.
“When he got traded here, as soon as he got traded, I sent him a text that said, ‘Yo, I’m gonna be like your little brother. I’m gonna be on your hip. I’m gonna be like your annoying little buzz in your ear,’” Cager said. “‘I’m trying to literally learn everything from you so I can duplicate it and be where you are, because that’s my main goal.’”
Since, Cager said Waller has been gracious with his time and teachings.
“He’s here to be a leader for this team and help us get to our next step and our goals,” Cager said. “And I couldn’t learn from a better guy and be around a better guy.”
If the 6-6, 245-pound Waller can impart even a sliver of his wisdom to Cager this season, it might just help unlock the biggest sleeper of a weapon on this Giants offense.
Cager is a 6-5, 220-pound specimen who gave the Eagles’ first-string defense fits in Week 18 of last year’s regular season.
Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, who were sitting their teams’ starters with a playoff spot locked up, identified Cager as the advantageous matchup that the Eagles knew the least about.
Davis Webb, the starting quarterback that day, said he and Cager met a lot that week to go over the game plan. Webb said Cager has great speed and instincts, plus an ability to gain yards after the catch by turning upfield in a hurry.
His athleticism and speed as a former wide receiver make him a great matchup against both linebackers and safeties, which helped the Giants move the ball some in that game.
“[Daboll] came to me and said this is your opportunity, go show everybody what you can do,” Cager recalled. “I had no other choice but to do what I could do.”
Cager looked so good that day, though, it begged a question: how did he even become available to the Giants in the first place? The answer lies in Cager’s unorthodox entry into the league.
Cager played at Miami in college from 2015-18 and had an injury history before transferring to Georgia for the 2019 season. He had a good year, with 33 catches for 476 yards and four TDs, but broke his ankle just before the SEC Championship Game.
That prevented Cager from being able to participate in the 2020 NFL Combine outside of his medical evaluation. Then the COVID pandemic shutdown hit. So Cager couldn’t travel to visit teams. He didn’t have a pro day. And no one could follow up on his progress in person.
“They just ceased everything,” he said.
The Jets signed him as an undrafted free agent, but after a two-catch, 35-yard game against the Colts, Cager popped his hamstring on Thursday Night Football against the Broncos. He went to Cleveland for a season then came back to the Jets after Douglas’ call.
And when the Jets cut him last October to send him down to their practice squad, he chose to sign onto the Giants practice squad instead. He saw an opportunity, and since, he’s found an inspiring amount of stars aligning for him.
Daboll, it turns out, recruited Cager out of high school while working at Alabama. Bischoff, the former Ravens assistant, already knew Cager from his time as a standout receiver at Baltimore’s Calvert Hall College High School.
“When I was with the Ravens I knew of him, I heard of him,” Bischoff said with a smile. “So I had a little bit of history following his journey. It’s funny how all of that works out. He lands on our doorstep here. It’s a blessing for us.”
And yes, Bischoff coached Waller with the Ravens. Then Waller got traded to the Giants. When Cager stops to think about it, it all seems a bit eerie – in a good way.
“A little of destiny I feel like, sometimes,” Cager said Tuesday.
Now he’s trying to follow in Waller’s footsteps every day, starting with the first lesson Waller taught him last year about trying to make the transition to tight end.
“Don’t be afraid to fail was the biggest thing,” Cager said. “It’s gonna happen. And the biggest learning comes from your failures. So don’t get frustrated if a D-end beats you. Learn from what you did wrong. Watch the film. Ask around. Ask the vets in the room, better blockers, what are they doing.”
Bischoff said in January that any tight end has to be “a guy who can play the whole position,” which means being able to “protect, run-block and catch the ball.” So Cager’s goal is to continue working on being that well-rounded player the Giants can’t take off the field, in a room that includes second-year tight end Daniel Bellinger, whom Cager praised as a good player, too.
“I have that confidence every day: I can be a starter in this league,” Cager said. “Now that takes experience. And being behind a guy like Darren Waller, being under his wing and following him everywhere and soaking up game from him, that’s gonna take my game to the next level so I can help this team in the future.”
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