Colby Parkinson’s numbers this season tell the story, but his body tells it louder.
The Los Angeles Rams tight end has been playing through pain all year, and it showed again against the Raiders as he limped on and off the field. He has missed only one game, Week 4 against the Eagles, but he has clearly not been at full strength. Knee and shoulder injuries have been part of the picture, and perhaps more has been going on behind the scenes.
Matthew Stafford put it plainly after Parkinson’s Week 7 effort: "If you guys knew the half of it, he's been unbelievable," Stafford said of Parkinson's Week 7 performance and what he's gone through this season.
Parkinson later made it clear that the grind starts long before kickoff.
"I mean, definitely getting a lot more treatment. It takes a little bit longer to get ready for games, you know, more tape and brace and all that stuff," Parkinson said.
"Sometimes it feels like when it rains, it pours for some reason. But, I said it after the game, this team is easy to play through hard stuff for because of how much love I have for the guys.
I know that every single one of my teammates would do the same thing."
Even with all that going on, Parkinson finished the Raiders game with five catches for 48 yards, trailing only Puka Nacua in receptions for the Rams. Still, that production sits well below what he delivered last season after stepping in for an injured Tyler Higbee.
The Rams have had chances for Parkinson to be a bigger piece again this year. Terrance Ferguson is on injured reserve, and rookie tight end Max Klare has mostly stayed on the bench. But through six games, Parkinson has only 14 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown.
That is a sharp drop from the stretch that began in Week 7 last year and ran through 14 games, including the postseason, when he put up 47 receptions for 549 yards and nine touchdowns.
He has not come close to that kind of output in 2026. Over the past two weeks, those are the only games in which he has topped two targets or finished with more than 15 receiving yards. That makes his Week 7 showing stand out even more, considering he pushed through pain and leg tape while helping cover for Davante Adams’ injury.
The Rams have seen this act before. When the team was without Puka Nacua against the Jaguars last season, Parkinson started his surge and never let go. His eight touchdown catches ranked third among tight ends in 2025 and second on the Rams behind Adams, who led the league with 14.
Parkinson also led the Rams’ tight end group with 43 catches for 408 yards, then added more than 150 receiving yards and another touchdown in the playoffs. He has filled plenty of roles along the way, handling run blocking, pass protection, checkdowns and intermediate routes. The deflection off his hands against the Raiders that turned into an interception was his lone missed target and an unusual mistake.
Even while dealing with injuries, Parkinson has been on the field more than he was last season, averaging 44.5 offensive snaps per game. Among Rams tight ends, he has played 63 percent of the available offensive snaps in the games he has appeared in, while only Higbee has more total offensive snaps, 300 to 267.
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