When the Rams drafted Max Klare in the second round last week, it was the third time that L.A. made a significant investment in the position over the last 12 months. Between drafting Terrance Ferguson in 2025 and Klare in 2026, the Rams also extended Tyler Higbee and reaffirmed their commitment to the longest-tenured member of the team.
We know 100-percent that Higbee and Klare will make the 53-man roster this year, while trading Ferguson would be shocking so that makes three. Could any of L.A.’s
other tight ends not be so safe?
Colby Parkinson
Entering the final season of the three-year contract he signed in 2024, Parkinson has a $5.5 million base salary in 2026. Trading Parkinson would save the Rams $7 million in 2026 cap space.
The downside to trading Parkinson is that he was a fairly good player in 2025.
Parkinson was third on the team with 43 catches, 408 yards, and eight touchdowns. In the playoffs, he added 152 yards in three games.
A player who turned 27 in January, Parkinson could still have many more years ahead of him. Are the Rams really preparing to lose him in 2027 with these draft picks over the past two years? Considering that Davante Adams and Higbee are both near the end of their careers and Parkinson just had a career year as a receiver, there’s some risk at hand to simply let him leave in free agency next year.
The compensatory pick the Rams would receive is fine, but in the grand scheme of things not very valuable.
Do the Rams plan to keep all four of these tight ends in 2026, re-sign or extend Parkinson, and prepare for Higbee’s retirement? His two-year extension is really just a one-year deal spread out over two seasons.
If the Rams put Parkinson on the block, maybe they would get a third round pick in 2027. He was very good once he got into his groove.
Davis Allen
Also entering the final season of his rookie contract, Allen had career bests in 2025 with 24 catches for 208 yards and three touchdowns. A fifth round pick in 2023, the timing seems weird to be giving up on Allen in L.A..
And yet … seriously how do the Rams keep Davis Allen now unless they trade somebody else?
Barely 25, Allen is coming into his own as an NFL tight end.
Even if his ceiling is a tight end two, that’s still something the Rams gave up on by drafting Ferguson and Klare over the last year.
If the Rams put Allen on the block, they could maybe get a future fourth round pick in return. That seems fair and yet given he’s in a contract year and won’t given much of a chance to shine in L.A. next season, his value will only go down.
If the Rams don’t trade anybody
Are the Rams rolling 5-deep next season?
- TE Parkinson
- TE Higbee
- TE Ferguson
- TE Klare
- TE Allen
In addition, 2025 undrafted free agent Mark Redman probably thought he might get a chance. Not so.
If the Rams do not trade someone, they’ll be taking a bigger chance on tight end depth than any team in the league. If they Rams do trade someone, they have options between Parkinson and Allen, but these are still young players who could be some team’s top receiving threat at the tight end position next year.
And yet Higbee is likely entering his final year, so do the Rams treat 2026 as an audition between Parkinson, Ferguson, and Klare to be his true successor?
Allen feels like the obvious choice. Parkinson feels like the guy who isn’t going to come back in 2027. Ferguson would be the move that shocks the world.
Overloading the tight end position might just be a move that Les Snead made now but only resolves later.
