Raiders send TE Darren Waller to injured reserve with lingering hamstring issue

Darren Waller isn’t coming back to the field anytime soon.

The Las Vegas Raiders placed their tight end on injured reserve on Thursday due to his lingering hamstring injury, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The move will keep Waller out at least through their December 4 matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers. Despite the setback, however, the Raiders expect Waller to return before the end of the season.

Waller has struggled with injuries in the past two seasons. After dealing with both back and knee injuries last year, Waller sustained a hamstring injury in training camp and has missed the Raiders’ last three games after he left their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 10 after just eight snaps.

In total, Waller has missed eight of their last 14 regular season games.

"It's not like I'm doing anything to keep myself off the field willingly," Waller said before landing on IR, via ESPN's Paul Gutierrez. "I'm doing everything that I can. It just may not be happening in the timetable I'd like for that to happen.

"So I'm just extending that grace and that patience tomyself because I really am trying my best to be healthy and go about my processes and my routines like I have in the past."

Waller has 175 receiving yards and one touchdown on 16 catches so far this season, his seventh in the league. The 30-year-old signed a three-year, $51 million extension with the Raiders before the season started.

The Raiders, who have lost two straight, will host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.

While his absence has been frustrating, the Raiders hope the extended break will give Waller the time he needs to fully recover and put this injury behind him.

"It's very difficult to predict some of these things. Muscles and those kinds of things are always a little tricky, especially for a player that his No. 1 skill, or one of his certain top traits, is his ability to run and open up and go. There's no timetable," coach Josh McDaniels said, via ESPN.

"So I'm just extending that grace and that patience to myself because I really am trying my best to be healthy and go about my processes and my routines like I have in the past." that's sooner rather than later. But we just can't do it magically snap our fingers and make it go away. We'll give it another shot this week and hopefully we can turn a corner."