Big: Seahawks select 6-7 receiver Colby Parkinson from Stanford in 4th round of NFL draft
Pete Carroll set out last year to get bigger at receiver, post-Doug Baldwin.
There aren’t a lot of guys bigger at receiver than the one the Seahawks took in the fourth round of the NFL draft.
Colby Parkinson from Stanford, Seattle’s first pick of the third and final day of the draft Saturday, is 6 feet 7. He’s listed as a tight end, but many scouts believe he can be a slot or further-outside receiver in the NFL.
Carroll said last year after the Seahawks drafted 6-4 DK Metcalf his top priority was to get bigger wide receivers to go with small, elusive Tyler Lockett.
Parkinson said on a Zoom online call Saturday he learned all the receiver positions as a freshman at Stanford, and that he was an in-the-line tight end and wing or slot receiver in a roughly 50-50 split of time last season.
But, he said the Seahawks have told him they see him as a “true,” traditional, “Y” tight end next to the tackle in their offense.
Russell Wilson is already excited to have Parkinson.
“He actually FacetTimed me a couple of minutes ago,” Parkinson said Saturday. “He was just saying that he’s fired up
“And obviously I am, too. We’re going to get right into it. We’re going to start getting the playbook install (remotely, because of the coronavirus) coming here pretty soon. I can’t wait to play with a quarterback like that, someone who has been just an amazing player for the past, what, 5-6 years now, since he came out of college.
“I’m excited to play with him and this great organization.”
Parkinson had 12 touchdown catches in three seasons for Stanford, which prized him for his sure-handedness catching the ball, particularly inside the opponents’ 20-yard line. The civil-engineering major dropped just one pass all last season. He had four TDs on just 10 receptions in 2017.
Parkinson is a lean 252 pounds. Like Jacob Hollister, Seattle’s flexed-outside tight end last season, Parkinson is light for an in-line NFL blocking tight end. The Seahawks signed Pro Bowl veteran Greg Olsen to a one-year, $7 million contract this offseason to be a more traditional, inside tight end.
Parkinson wanted you to know two other things: “Something fans will want to know: I play guitar a lot. And an avid golfer.
“Not very good at either. But I try.”
Parkinson said he is a couple quarters short of graduating with his civil-engineering degree. He’s been waiting to go into structural engineering, the field in which his older brother works.
The Seahawks have ideas to keep his other career on hold.
This story was originally published April 25, 2020 at 10:41 AM.
