What a Healthy Colby Parkinson Can Bring to Seahawks’ Offense in 2021
Colby Parkinson’s rookie season was unideal, to say the least. Selected in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the 6-foot-7 tight end suffered a broken fifth metatarsal in his foot during an offseason workout in June and consequently spent the first half of the season on the non-football injury list.
For the Seahawks, it couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time. With Will Dissly coming off a second-straight major lower leg injury – this time a torn Achilles – they were set to heavily rely on Jacob Hollister and veteran Greg Olsen for production. It didn’t work out; the two combined for a meager 448 yards and four touchdowns on 49 receptions. Dissly, as expected, wasn’t able to contribute much in his return either, putting up 251 yards and two scores on 24 grabs.
Parkinson was activated off the NFI before the team’s Week 8 matchup against the 49ers. He appeared in just three snaps in the matchup then was inactive for the next trio of games. Finding his way back on the field on Monday Night Football against the Eagles in Week 12, he was active for all but one game from that point forward.
But despite Olsen suffering a foot injury of his own the week prior, Parkinson didn’t see much of an increased role. He registered his career-high in offensive snaps (19) in a Week 14 blowout of the Jets, where he nabbed his lone pair of receptions for 16 yards. From there on out, he was a non-factor, even as Seattle’s offense scrambled to find its footing before falling apart in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
Olsen has since retired, and Hollister has departed for Buffalo where he’ll catch passes from his college teammate Josh Allen. Countering these losses is the arrival of Gerald Everett, coming from the Rams alongside new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. However, Everett has been the only notable addition to the Seahawks’ tight end group this offseason.
That means dependence is high on Dissly and – to a slightly lesser degree – Parkinson in a Waldron-led offense that will heavily involve and rotate its tight ends. With elements of Sean McVay’s system being implemented in Seattle, expect Russell Wilson and company to line up in 12 personnel – one running back, two tight end sets – rather often.
While Everett was brought in to help solve some of the team’s middle of the field and intermediate woes from last year, Parkinson should be able to help on that front as well. Though he’s not the best athlete, his large frame creates easy mismatches against slot corners and smaller linebackers. He gets off the line of scrimmage well and boxes out defenders to make tough grabs, giving him upside to be a crutch for Wilson on third down.
That’s what he was in college: a sure-handed big man his quarterback could lean on. In 2019, that quarterback was 2021 third-round pick Davis Mills, who helped Parkinson close out his collegiate career on a high note. That year, the towering tight end logged career-highs in receptions (48) and yards (568). But perhaps the best number found on his 2019 stat sheet is zero, which is the amount of drops he had on 88 targets. Of all Division I tight ends with 50 or more targets that year, only LSU’s Thaddeus Moss could match Parkinson in that regard.
Given his elite hands, well above-average height, and 33 1/4-inch arms, Parkinson could be a force to reckon with in the red zone. However, for all of the Seahawks’ weaknesses on offense, this wasn’t one of them in 2020. In 73.7 percent of their trips to the red zone, they scored a touchdown—the third-highest mark in the NFL trailing only the Packers and Titans.
That said, Parkinson gives Wilson a big body down near the goal line—something he hasn’t had since Jimmy Graham. And while the connection with Graham in that area of the field was inconsistent at times, it’ll be hard for defenses to key in on Parkinson the way they did Graham with all the other weapons Wilson now has at his disposal.
In a wide zone scheme, Parkinson’s blocking abilities are going to be put to the test. With his height, blocking with consistent pad level will be a challenge. But in college, he proved to be mechanically sound while displaying high effort.
Overall, what Parkinson could really provide this team with is clarity in its tight end group. Dissly is entering the final year of his rookie contract, and Everett signed to a one-year deal. In less than a year’s time, barring any unforeseen extension, Parkinson will be Seattle’s No. 1 tight end entering free agency by default. If he puts up a strong 2021 campaign, rebuilding this unit suddenly becomes a lot less of a daunting task for the Seahawks next spring.
In a way, Parkinson’s 2021 is a bit of a make-or-break season, but not necessarily for him. Seattle’s long-term plan at the position could be greatly altered by his production or lack thereof. For the future of its offense and the sake of continuity, the Stanford product could be a real game-changer. And given his unique traits, he may prove to be just that on the field.
