INGLEWOOD, Calif. – In the fourth quarter, Rams tight end Tyler Higbee got lost in the Cardinals' defense on a corner route. When Stafford threw him the ball, it hit him in stride and Higbee made sure to stretch it out inside the pylon for a 22-yard touchdown, putting Los Angeles up 30-20. And, of course, he capped the play with a festive walk into a celebratory spike.
That was the second of three touchdowns by Rams tight ends Higbee and Colby Parkinson on Sunday, all in the second half. They totaled nine receptions for 127 yards – 49% of Stafford's passing yards on the day – in the process.
"I thought our tight ends played outstanding today, battled and played a lot of snaps," Stafford said. "So for Higs to come back and play as many snaps as he did was outstanding."
It was another heavy 13 personnel day for the Rams in Week 18, and the tight ends made a sizable impact in both the run and pass game. They helped Los Angeles to a 37-20 victory over Arizona, which earned them the No. 5 seed in the NFC and a rematch with the Panthers in next week's Wild Card round.
Head coach Sean McVay said postgame that Higbee wasn't supposed to play a lot of snaps originally. But then tight end Terrance Ferguson got added to the injury report late in the week with a hamstring issue. He couldn't go, so Higbee needed to step up. He did just that, securing a season-high five catches for 91 yards and a score.
"To make some of the plays that he made, you can just see there's a swag, there's a confidence, he's a true glue guy for us," McVay said. "It was awesome to be able to have him back out there."
"He's what's right about this game. He's what's right about our team," Stafford said. "And for him to come back out and get his feet wet again, I don't know how many snaps he played. It felt like every single one... You can't bet against a guy like that. And to go out there and play the way he did, get in the end zone, do all the things he did for us today, it's a testament to him as a player, as a person, as a teammate. We're lucky to have him."
Meanwhile, Parkinson continued seeing red in the red zone, as he has all season, catching four passes for 36 yards and two scores. He finished the year with eight touchdowns, surpassing his career total before this season (five) by a wide margin.
That's far from the production that Parkinson expected coming into the 2025 campaign, but the Rams' increase in 13 personnel opened opportunities for the position group, and Parkinson in particular took advantage.
"We come in as a tight end room trying to help the team in any way that we can," Parkinson said. "So whether it's 11 personnel, 12 personnel, 13 got installed halfway through the year and we kind of ran with it. We're all very selfless and no one's out there looking for individual success. We're out there looking for team success."
Parkinson's first touchdown on Sunday came late in the third quarter. Stafford found him on a crosser after a play-action bootleg, he tightroped the sideline and leapt over the goal line for a 21-yard score to give Los Angeles a 23-20 lead. That play was set up by a 21-yard contested catch down the seam from, you guessed it, Higbee.
When the Rams had a chance to ice the game, of course Stafford and McVay went back to the tight end. On the one-yard line, the Rams ran a play-action fake and Parkinson was wide open in the flat for a touchdown, after which he celebrated with his classic crab dance.
"That's what we needed," Parkinson said of the Rams' performance. "We needed to come in and get back in a rhythm, obviously our last two games didn't go our way, so try to get ready to go for the playoffs and do what we needed to do."
