LA Chargers: Donald Parham survives the first round of cuts

Donald Parham saw his odds of making the LA Chargers’ roster increase after Saturday’s cuts.

On Saturday, the LA Chargers made their first series of cuts to get down to 80 players following the new training camp restrictions:

#Chargers waived 6 players: TE Andrew Vollert, Safety Roderic Teamer, OT Koda Martin, WR Andre Patton, TE Jared Rice and DT P.J. Johnson.

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) August 1, 2020

The team only needed to cut six players given that they had 86 before, unlike some NFL teams that had 90. There’s a lot of domino effects in analyzing each of these cuts, like the wide receiver three battle and the Roderic Teamer cut increasing the importance of Alohi Gilman. Perhaps my biggest takeaway though is that former Dallas Renegade Donald Parham is still around.

The huge tight end is an athletic beast as we’ve gone over before. He’s 6’8″ with a 4.6 40 time at tight end. In the now-defunct XFL, Parham racked up 24 receptions, 307 yards, and four touchdowns. That’s pretty impressive for just five games without much other prior professional experience.

While Parham already had great size and speed in his days at Stetson University, his experience in the XFL seemed like a more polished version of those same characteristics. Parham leveraged his speed and size over defenders and became a big coverage problem in that league.

How Donald Parham stacks up on the LA Chargers roster:

Parham is now just one of four tight ends on the Chargers’ roster. Hunter Henry and Virgil Green will obviously make the team. If there’s going to be three tight end spots (there could be four with roster expansion this season), Parham will likely duke it out with Stephen Anderson for the last spot.

Anderson has more NFL experience than Parham from his days in Houston and New England. That puts Parham at somewhat of a disadvantage, but these cuts have shown that the Chargers value talent and potential over experience.

Many assumed that Andre Patton would be the third receiver simply due to his experience. In reality, the Chargers went with Jalen Guyton and their draft picks over him in these cuts despite his playing experience in 2019.

By no means is Parham a lock to make the roster now, but he just saw his odds shoot up. When comparing him with Anderson, he might be the less polished product, but Anderson can’t compare to his monster size and speed. Parham’s age is another attractive quality, as he’ll be turning 23 this month.

In 2019, the LA Chargers were 23rd in red-zone efficiency. Having a tall, freakishly athletic tight end who can threaten in the red zone would be huge for Los Angeles, who are in a division where they need as many weapons as they can get. Take it from Henry himself:

#Chargers TE Hunter Henry says he is looking forward to new playing with new TE Donald Parham Jr. “You can’t teach size. Red zone threat. You need a lot of different threats, especially in our division.”

— Fernando Ramirez (@RealFRamirez) April 29, 2020

With Jared Rice and Andrew Vollert released from the roster, Parham has a good chance of making it. I’m excited to see what he could do with Henry if he does. Tyrod Taylor loves his tight ends, so it’s not hard to see Parham becoming a favorite of his with all of his key traits.