He’s been a free agent fail

Colby Parkinson has gone from $15 million signing to third string tight end

Colby Parkinson is one of the most overpaid free agents in the history of the Rams, a fact that became more apparent in Monday’s loss to the Dolphins as the $10 million tight end has ended up playing on the third string. And it took less than half of one season for that to happen.

When Tyler Higbee returns from a torn ACL, Parkinson could be the first tight end that Sean McVay asks to leave.

After signing a three-year, $22.5 million contract in free agency with $10.25 million guaranteed at signing and opening the season as McVay’s starting tight end, Parkinson is down to splitting backup duties with Hunter Long.

This has been trending down for Parkinson since a month ago.

• From Week 1-Week 5, Parkinson played in 87% of the snaps.
• In the past 3 games, Parkinson went down to 57% of the snaps, including a season-low 42% against the Seahawks in Week 9
• He’s caught 2 passes in the last 3 games and hasn’t been targeted in the last 2

While Monday night’s snap counts from the Rams’ 23-15 loss to the Dolphins aren’t official yet, it appears that Parkinson played way less than the 32 snaps he got last week. He played in just 15% of the snaps in the first half of the game, so it could be about 10-15%.

The Rams paid Parkinson over $10 million guaranteed! If he’s on the roster on the 5th day of the 2025 league year, Parkinson’s entire $5.25 million base salary becomes guaranteed and he will make over $15 million. If that seems like a no-brainer decision, it might not be:

The Rams already guaranteed $2.5 million of Parkinson’s 2025 salary and releasing him leaves $6.66 million in dead money with only $3.1 million in new cap space.

But when Higbee returns, Davis Allen seems to have solidified his place as L.A.’s TE2 and Hunter Long might still be ahead of Parkinson.

A week after trading Tre’Davious White for nothing, Parkinson is the new “Worst free agent signing of Les Snead’s 2024 offseason” and there’s no other competition.