Colby Parkinson or Terrance Ferguson Fantasy Football Start or Sit Advice for Week 1
Parkinson ($3,600 for Showdown) is coming off a strong campaign. The veteran was the Rams’ leading tight end last season, catching 51 passes for 560 yards and nine touchdowns between the regular season and playoffs, all of which set career highs for Parkinson.
The tight end cracked double-digit FPTS seven times and usage wise, Parkinson saw a target on 23% of his routes while running a route on 45% of his team’s dropbacks. Parkinson was heavily utilized in scoring territory, seeing 25 redzone targets, but his down field action was minimal, garnering only five targets over 20 yards.
Meanwhile, Ferguson ($3,200) played a smaller role in his rookie season. The 23-year-old caught 12 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns. Ferguson saw a target on 15% of his routes while running a route on 34% of his team’s dropbacks, including 10 redzone targets. Ferguson did display big play ability, though, with 15 of his 31 targets being north of 20 yards, six of which he hauled in and two of which went for touchdowns.
Ferguson averaged an elite 17.9 aDOT, which easily ranked first among all the tight ends who saw 20+ targets and was miles better than Parkinson at 5.5. Still, Parkinson averaged 1.8 YPPR, compared to just 1.23 for Ferguson. Furthermore, Parkinson hauled in 71.8% of his targets while Ferguson finished with an ugly 38.7% catch rate. On a per snap basis, Parkinson scored 0.21 FPTS, compared to 0.15 for Ferguson.
Outside of deep looks, Parkinson was the more efficient and more utilized tight end for the Rams, but will that continue in 2026? Entering his second season, all the buzz has been around Ferguson this summer, as Los Angeles’ coaching staff has praised him and multiple reports have suggested that Ferguson’s role is going to grow this season.
Ferguson is an elite prospect, with the 23-year-old standing at 6’5″ and being 242 pounds, but Parkinson is an even bigger body at 6’7″ and 266 pounds, and he is only four years older than Ferguson.
Ferguson eventually seeing more usage than Parkinson this season is a possibility, but it’s no guarantee, after Parkinson just had a career-best campaign. The Rams like to have multiple tight ends on the field often, so these two tight ends both providing fantasy value this season could happen, but when it comes to Week 1 vs. the 49ers, it’s hard not to expect more from Parkinson, who is the more established and trusted player in this offense.
The 49ers gave up the sixth-most touchdowns to tight ends last season (10) and if Parkinson maintains his elite redzone role from last season, him finding the endzone is definitely in play. When Parkinson faced the 49ers in Week 5 last season, he caught 4-of-5 targets for 41 yards and a touchdown (14.1 FPTS), whereas Ferguson caught just 1-of-4 targets for 41 yards (4.1 FPTS).
