Colby Parkinson featured in Mel Kiper’s “B” grade for the Seahawks

The 2020 NFL Draft has come and gone in historic fashion. Not only was it the first ever completely virtual draft, it also became the most-viewed draft ever as well.

Stanford didn’t have much too look forward to this season compared to some recent years as TE Colby Parkinson was the first Cardinal taken when he went in the fourth round to the Seattle Seahawks at pick 133rd overall.

Parkinson is a monster of a man and was certainly have been on every team’s draft boards just because of his size and potential, and the Seahawks nabbed him with their fourth-round pick.

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. assigned draft grades for all 32 NFL teams and wrote up a bit about the Seahawks selections:

The Seahawks were 11-5 last season, but they won a whopping 10 one-score games, and they were carried by their offense, a stark difference from previous years of Pete Carroll’s tenure with the team. Even with Jadeveon Clowney, they struggled to get to quarterbacks as the defense ranked 30th in pressure rate. First-round pick L.J. Collier barely played. They needed some help in the front seven in this draft.

So it should be no surprise that they went defense with their first two picks, taking inside linebacker Jordyn Brooks (27) in Round 1 and defensive end Darrell Taylor (48) in Round 2. Brooks really popped on the Texas Tech tape, and I had him No. 32 overall in my rankings. Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright aren’t on rookie contracts anymore, so I like the pick to get a young sideline-to-sideline defender and tackling machine. As for Taylor, I thought this was a reach, but he has some solid bend off the edge. He was a late riser on many teams’ boards and had surgery on a stress fracture in his shin in January. He certainly fits the Seahawks’ type, though, as I wrote on Friday night.

Damien Lewis (69) should compete at one of the guard spots, and DeeJay Dallas (144) is an intriguing running back prospect and a solid Day 3 pick. I could see him cutting into Rashaad Penny’s snaps. Alton Robinson (148) is an up-and-down edge rusher. Tight end Colby Parkinson (133) underachieved, but at 6-foot-7 he has intriguing physical attributes.

I’ll stick with the same grade I gave the Seahawks last year, though I like their first pick more than I did in 2019.

Kiper really hits the nail on the head there, stating the obvious about Parkinson. He’s big and certainly didn’t reach the full potential of a mammoth tight end while at Stanford. The Seahawks earned a draft grade of “B” by Kiper and honestly, besides Jordyn Brooks, Parkinson has the highest chance of starting right away.

That being said, due to his untapped potential right now through his years at Stanford, his fall camp will be utterly important for his chances to start right away and make a big impact. All he’ll have to do is beat out Will Dissly.

That’d be easy enough, right?