This is the slowest time in the NFL calendar, when teams are for more concerned about their players staying out of the news than they are about actually making any.
Even so, the content game never sleeps, neither does the 24-hour news cycle, and our football-crazed society demands some sort of NFL content even during the summer doldrums.
Still, it’s hard to grasp some of the chatter around the league about Los Angeles Rams tight end Colby Parkinson being a potential cap casualty this year.
In a vacuum, it makes sense why his name would pop up. The Rams have a slew of tight ends on the roster/ready to make their case during training camp, and Parkinson is both the most expensive and one of the oldest of the bunch. With only one year left on his deal, you can understand why folks elsewhere around the league would consider him a movable asset.
As mentioned above, the Rams have a ton of tight ends ready to report to training camp, and they’ve been the posted child for the heavy personnel movement (and 13 personnel, specifically) around the NFL. They need to have plenty around if they plan to run more of those formations, and you can only commit so many resources to that position group.
That’s why there have been a slew of blogs, columns and listicles published in recent weeks about why Parkinson could be cut or traded and added elsewhere. There was a post on Bleacher Report this week dubbing Parkinson one of the “Cut Candidates Who Should be on Every NFL Team’s Radar.” That subsequently led to team blogs and sites clamoring for him to be scooped up by the New England Patriots, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers and others.
This isn’t just a this-week thing, either; this Green Bay Packers post about finding a way to add Parkinson dates back to the start of the month.
Here’s the thing, though: Parkinson is the best tight end the Rams have, and is the engine for this new personnel trend.
Nate Tice of Yahoo Sports was a guest on The Mina Kimes Show recently (who isn’t a popular commentator herself around here, but Tice was plenty insightful during their conversation) and discussed why Parkinson is important to the Rams’ offense.
“Colby Parkinson is the guy that makes it go,” Tice said. “Because he can block, he’s a good receiver, just such a good player. It is going to be cool to see how they move everybody around. [Jake] Ferguson’s going to be the big play threat, [Max] Klare can become that as well.”
The reason L.A.’s 13-personnel stuff works is because it has the pieces to make it work (and a genius play designer calling the shots, of course). As ESPN’s Bill Barnwell wrote early this offseason, most of the copy-cat attempts around the league in the second half of last season came up flat. Personnel is a major reason for that.
Parkinson’s multifaceted skill set unlocks so many potential looks and plays for this offense. Having true “Y” tight ends who can block is great. Having receiving threats at the position is great, too. But having a guy who can do it all and allows you more flexibility? That’s golden. It’s harder to run the wide array of Sean McVay’s desired looks when you’re locked in to putting certain guys in certain spots.
There are obviously financial considerations here, it would be naïve to think otherwise. And with limited draft capital lined up for next year, you can understand why some people, fans, analysts, etc. would think a trade for the veteran tight end makes sense. There’s also the fact that Tyler Higbee just signed a new extension. But the Rams aren’t in dire financial straits. They’re more worried about winning a championship now than hypothetical roster spots in future campaigns.
Of course other teams around the league would love to have Colby Parkinson. He’s a really good football player at a position of increasing value. But if you’re the Rams, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to let a player like that walk away, even with seven other players in that room on the roster for now. Ejecting him from this team would be a shocker at this point, much to the dismay of most of the NFL.
