Tyler

Higbee

Higbee has been practicing in full since last Friday but is being eased back into the lineup and will not suit up this week. He is still working his way back from the torn ACL he suffered in the Wild Card Round last season. The Rams do not have a fantasy-relevant tight end for Week 14.

Designated to practice last week, Higbee is now poised to actually return vs. the Bills. Sidelined since last season’s Wild Card Round, Higbee has always commanded more targets than you would expect, but the Rams’ offense has become a black hole behind target dominators Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp. That being said, veteran Higbee is probably going to fare better than Colby Parkinson and Davis Allen, who both struggled mightily as pass catchers in Higbee’s absence. Higbee will crack the top 30 for Week 14, but only just so.

Higbee was upgraded to full for Friday’s practice but the team opted to give him another week off before activating him from the physically unable to perform list. Neither Davis Allen nor Colby Parkinson were able to earn the long-term starting role with Higbee sidelined. All three will be unusable whenever Higbee makes his debut but he can be speculatively added to playoff-bound teams with spare bench space.

That makes back-to-back limited session for the tight end. Higbee has not been able to play since the end of July, and the 31-year-old is likely to miss at least more game before having a chance to return in Week 14 against Bills.

Higbee returned to practice this week after starting the season on the PUP list due to a knee injury he suffered last January. He was listed with a limited status on Wednesday, but he is unlikely to play Week 13 against the Saints. This will be Higbee’s first week to ramp up practices and Week 14 against the Bills will be his next opportunity to suit up.

Higbee remains unlikely to suit up for LA’s Week 13 against the Saints, however. He suffered a major knee injury last January and has been on the PUP list since late July. Higbee could return for the end of the regular season if the Rams are still in the postseason hunt. Until then, Davis Allen and Colby Parkinson will continue splitting snaps and routes.

This means Higbee will miss at least the first four games of the season. The Rams never bothered to feign during camp that Higbee was close to a return. It could be closer to mid-season before we begin to hear about him ramping up football activities. Free agent addition Colby Parkinson seems like the best pass-catching bet during Higbee’s absence, though Davis Allen remains on the roster.

Rodrigue has steadily beat the drum for the Rams’ tight end room this offseason, though it remains to be seen how much of a personnel shift Sean McVay will employ, having led the league in 11 personnel usage in five-of-seven seasons as the Rams head coach. Tight ends coach Nick Caley, who coached the Patriots’ tight ends from 2017-to-2022, reportedly turned down an offer for the Patriots’ open offensive coordinator role this offseason, “in part because of the group of players he coaches in L.A.” Fantasy managers should continue monitoring second-year TE Davis Allen and free-agent signee TE Colby Parkinson’s training camp development while starter Tyler Higbee rehabilitates a pair of Grade 3 ACL and MCL tears that occurred on January 14th.

As expected, Higbee lands on the physically unable to perform list after suffering an ACL/MCL injury in the Rams’ Wild Card game in January. With the long recovery that combination ACL/MCL injuries take, Higbee is likely to be out well into the season. The Rams signed Colby Parkinson in the offseason and he should be given the chance to start at tight end while Higbee is out.

The update comes passively from team reporter Stu Jackson, who mentions that Higbee’s return-to-play date remains unknown. Isolated ACL tears typically require at least nine months of rehabilitation and Higbee’s combination ACL/MCL injury occurred on January 14th. The PUP list’s minimum four-game stay makes sense. GM Les Snead signed free agent TE Colby Parkinson to a three-year, $22.5 million deal this offseason, ostensibly giving him the first crack at replacing Higbee as the team’s Week 1 starter. Parkinson never earned a full-time role with the Seahawks but tallied 15 explosive pass plays (15-plus yards) as a backup over the last two years.