Seahawks position review: One-and-done for tight end Gerald Everett? Is Colby Parkinson ready to take a major leap forward?

By all accounts, Gerald Everett was a good fit for the Seahawks’ new offense.

For one, his familiarity with first-year offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, both coming from the Rams, was generally seen as a benefit for him and the team as the new scheme was implemented, and then Everett quickly bonded with star QB Russell Wilson in training camp. All good things.

Everett followed up with a productive season, posting 48 receptions (on 63 targets) for 478 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

Question is, will he be back in Seattle in 2022? Will either of the Seahawks’ starting tight ends be back?

Those are the looming questions at tight end as we continue our reviews of the Seahawks’ position groups heading into the offseason.

Tight end

Starters

Gerald Everett

Age: 27

Snaps played in regular season: 650

Contract situation: Unrestricted free agent

Will Dissly

Age: 25

Snaps played in regular season: 512 offense/181 special teams

Contract situation: Unrestricted free agent

Backup

Colby Parkinson

Age: 23

Snaps played in regular season: 187 offense/139 special teams

Contract situation: Has two years left on his four-year rookie deal with a nonguaranteed base salary of $895,000 in 2022.

Others on roster

Tyler Mabry appeared in six games in 2021, playing mostly on special teams.

2021 review

Take away Everett’s dreadful game in the Seahawks’ Dec. 5 victory over the 49ers — when he effectively committed three turnovers, two of which happened at or near the goal line — and he had a fine first season as Seattle’s No. 1 tight end.

Indeed, Everett’s pass-catching numbers were the most by a Seahawks tight end since Jimmy Graham’s departure after the 2017 season.

Even so, Everett’s production might have fallen a little short of some outside expectations after the Seahawks signed him away from the Rams as free agent last offseason (on a one-year, $6 million deal). He was good, but not necessarily great — and not always a consistent presence in the offense.

Dissly, meanwhile, was solid again as the No. 2 tight end, with 21 catches (on 26 targets) for 231 yards and one TD. Beyond that, his real value is as a blocker, and he was a key factor in the revitalized rushing attack late in the season.

Parkinson, at 6-foot-7, showed some flashes of his potential (five catches, on eight targets, for 33 yards) in limited snaps. The 2020 fourth-round pick out of Stanford missed most of his rookie season because of a broken foot, and then missed the first month of the 2021 season with a similar injury in the same foot.

2022 preview

Everett and Dissly are both unrestricted free agents, meaning the Seahawks tight end situation could be in store for a significant overhaul this offseason.

Or perhaps not.

The hunch here is the Seahawks will want to bring at least one, if not both, back in 2022.

Dissly, in particular, would seem to be an obvious priority, given Pete Carroll’s desire to run the ball plus Dissly’s steady hands in the passing game (he has caught 76 of his 96 targets in four seasons, a 79% catch rate that would rank among the best in the NFL if he had enough catches to qualify).

You could make a compelling case either way with Everett.

Again, he did provide the sort of breakaway potential the Seahawks haven’t had at tight end in years, and no one in the passing game was tougher to tackle than Everett. For an offense that has struggled to find a No. 3 wide receiver, why let a solid starting tight end walk away?

But if the Seahawks would prefer to spend free-agent money elsewhere — on an established No. 3 wide receiver, perhaps, or on the offensive line or edge rusher or free safety … yes, this team has a lot of needs — then they could probably be OK with a Dissly-Parkinson pairing at tight end in 2022. (And then sign a mid-tier veteran for depth and/or take a developmental tight end in the middle of the draft, perhaps.)

No, Parkinson hasn’t proven himself yet, but the Seahawks do like his upside. And for one-sixth of the cost of Everett’s salary, it’s not unreasonable to think Parkinson could assume 75% of Everett’s production in the passing game.

Are the Seahawks convinced Parkinson is ready to take a leap forward in Year 3? That question, no doubt, will be a major factor in the team’s decision to try to re-sign Everett, and looms as one of the more intriguing questions about the makeup of this offense this offseason.  

Up next: Wide receivers.