4 fourth-year Seattle Seahawks who desperately need to prove themselves

Seattle Seahawks tight end Colby Parkinson

There hasn't been any question since the 2022 offseason who would fill the Seattle tight end room this year and, as expected, Parkinson, along with Will Dissly and Noah Fant, are the guys. Parkinson is more like Fant than Dissly, though Parkinson doesn't have the breakaway speed that Fant has flashed. Still, Parkinson can catch and in 2023 he could have a much better-than-expected season simply because opposing defenses are going to have to focus on lots of other things other than Parkinson.

Parkinson was banged-up to begin his career in 2020 and only played in six games. But in the last two seasons, he has missed a total of three and has actually started three games. His production took a big jump in 2022 as well. In 2021, he was only targeted 8 times and caught 5 of those targets for just 33 yards. But in 2022, he was targeted 34 times, just four fewer targets than Dissly, and had 25 catches for 322 yards (just 27 fewer yards than Dissly).

Parkinson is 6'7" so he is a big target. Once he catches the ball, he has a bit of elusiveness as well. He's also a better than expected blocker, especially in pass protection. He played at Stanford so he had to learn to run block there and just hasn't been asked to run block all that much in the NFL.

Both Parkinson and Noah Fant are in the walk years of their current contracts. Both are going to want to showcase what they can do to earn their next contracts. But if Parkinson continues his upswing from last year, he could get to 50 catches and 700 yards and 6 touchdowns in 2023. That would make the rest of the offense better, too.