Darren Waller peeks through the rolling glass garage doors at the back end of the Raiders’ Henderson headquarters between weightlifting sets to watch his teammates’ training camp practice session.

Maintaining his usual straight face, the Pro Bowl tight end exudes a calm that stands in stark contrast to the panic regarding his status that’s been spreading among the Raiders’ fanbase. Waller isn’t injured, just experiencing some minor, undisclosed “discomfort,” so Las Vegas’ coaching staff has given him a 10-day break from practice during a grueling stretch in August.

Waller initially didn’t like the idea but came around to understanding.

“It was frustrating, because I always want to be out there working. [In] 2019, I don’t think I missed a practice, and [in] 2020, I only missed a couple, so I want to be out there,” Waller says after returning to practice. “But at the same time, maybe I do need to sit still a little bit, because it’s a long season.”

The ultra-cautious, rest-over-reps approach the Raiders have employed with the 28-year-old going into the 2021 season is hardly unprecedented in the NFL. It’s usually reserved for the league’s best players, a category in which Waller now undoubtedly belongs after monster years in each of his first two full seasons with the Raiders.

Waller broke out in 2019 with 90 receptions for 1,145 yards and three touchdowns, then proved he was no one-year wonder by topping those figures in the team’s first year in Las Vegas. The speedy, 6-foot-6, 255-pound force became the undisputed focal point of the Raiders’ offense in 2020, pulling in a franchise record 107 receptions for 1,196 yards and nine touchdowns.

The organization seems even more committed to him going into the 2021 season after allowing the team’s second-leading receiver, Nelson Agholor, to walk in free agency without making any significant upgrades in that area. That’s largely because the Raiders’ brain trust trusts so completely in Waller.

“I’ve never been around a guy that is that unselfish, that talented, that versatile and that complete,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said in a news conference during training camp. “We’ve got to continue to build around him. We’ve got to get some of our young receivers to take pressure off of him. We’ve put some more things in our playbook. We are going to be a lot more demanding of Waller going forward.”

Waller ranked No. 35 in the NFL’s annual player-voted Top 100 list going into this season. His coaches and teammates would surely argue that wasn’t high enough, and they might have a point.

Alongside fellow standouts Travis Kelce (Kansas City) and George Kittle (San Francisco), Waller is helping to redefine the tight end position in the modern NFL. Among that trio of consensus top tight ends, Waller also stands out as the unlikeliest success story, considering where he was as recently as three years ago.

The Raiders signed Waller off of Baltimore’s practice squad in late 2018 to end a rocky four-year tenure with the Ravens, who selected him in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft out of Georgia Tech.

Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr recalled thinking, “How did we get this guy?” as soon as Waller showed up.

“I remember throwing him his first route at practice. I threw it 10 feet behind him and was like, ‘Oh, wow, this guy can run!’” Carr recalled at the end of last season. “From then on, it was a beautiful thing with not only on-the-field chemistry but off the field. He told me his story and what he had been through.”

Waller was an addict, developing a drug habit that included opioid pills and cocaine, dating back to his days as a prep football star in suburban Atlanta. It nearly cost him his career, if not his life.

After being suspended for the entire 2017 NFL season for repeated violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy, Waller overdosed on opioids in his car. Unlike three friends he grew up playing football alongside—all of whom suffered fatal overdoses—Waller survived, checking himself into rehab shortly after the incident.

He has now been sober for more than four years and has turned his attention toward advocacy for those in similar situations. He founded the Darren Waller Foundation to help drug-addicted youths and has appeared in national opioid-crisis campaigns.

“I feel like that giving-back component really keeps me sharp, because that’s the greatest feeling that I can feel—to help somebody else or to be impactful in someone else’s community or sphere of influence,” Waller says. “So I really want to do that and stay on top of my routine—meditating, praying, writing in my journal, still going to meetings and just doing what I’ve been doing to keep me built up.

“Without those things, my career doesn’t sustain. I have to continue to dance with what brought me here, and that’s taking care of myself internally, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. You get the best version of me on the football field when I’m doing those things.”

Waller’s absence from training camp was partially a result of how sharp he’s looked again heading into 2021, according to Gruden. The coach says he found it almost necessary to hold Waller out in order to fully evaluate other players vying for receptions.

With his ability to create separation in passing routes and his rhythm with Carr, Waller received the lion’s share of targets during the first several practices. Given his mindset, it was easier to sit him for practices than ask him to go at half-speed.

That’s because, after what he’s been through, Waller refuses to give less than full effort. He has risen from the lowest of depths to the highest of peaks, and he plans to extend his stay at the top.

“When I was coming out of the dark places in my life, it’s like, ‘Man, you’ve come that close to not being here anymore, you have to have a new sense of urgency,’ ” Waller says. “Every single day you’re not promised much, so I want to take that urgency and put it into everything I do.”

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