WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5
new tight ends coach, Brian An-
gelichio, and others, including
Reed, on skills and technique.
Parham is unlikely to make the
Redskins’ 53-man roster, given
his lack of experience and the
fact that the team has three
established tight ends in Reed,
Vernon Davis and Jeremy Sprin-
kle. But if Parham does enough,
the Redskins might want to put
him on their practice squad,
continuing to develop him with
the hope he could eventually
earn a roster spot. There is only
one other 6-8 tight end in the
NFL: San Francisco’s Levine
Toilolo. A player as big as Par-
ham, who can catch passes as
easily as he does, is next to
impossible to find.
“As he gets more and more into
it, [the Redskins] are going to be
surprised, because he’s barely
scratched the surface of his abili-
ty,” Hughes said.
Asked about this, Parham
shrugged. He was standing near
the door to the team’s practice
facility, holding his helmet and
looking unsure of what to expect.
Everywhere he has gone during
this camp, the only thing players
and fans seem to talk about is his
size. It’s as if no one had seen a
6-8 football player before be-
cause, well, most of them hadn’t.
“I just take it for what it is,” he
said. “It’s all fun and games.”
He smiled and looked around
at many of his accomplished
teammates, seeming almost as
surprised to be here with them as
they are to be playing with some-
one as tall as him.
[email protected]ends coach, Clay Mazza, calls “all
muscle.”
As Parham got stronger, “his
confidence went through the
roof,” Mazza said.
In the first game of Parham’s
sophomore year, he dived and
caught a pass near the goal line,
hitting the pylon for a touch-
down. “An unbelievable catch,”
Mazza said. After that, Parham
seemed to get better and better.
He started a few games his soph-
omore year, started every game
his junior season and became a
sensation last fall, catching 85
passes for 1,319 yards and 13
touchdowns in only nine games.
Many of those catches came with
Parham lined up as a wide receiv-
er to take better advantage of
mismatches.
“He’s a freak of nature that
when you see him running, he’s
so fluid in his movements you
don’t think he’s that fast, but then
you see he ran a 4.6[-second
40-yard dash],” Hughes said.
“He can do things with the ball
in the air that are just special,”
Mazza said.
The Redskins have been delib-
erate with Parham, working him
slowly into live team drills. He
doesn’t know much about block-
ing, having not done much of it
and because his 6-8 frame creates
challenges.
“I’m longer, it’s not as easy for
me to bend, so I have to put
something like more effort into
it,” Parham said.
Still, he seems determined to
prove he is not “a one-sided tight
end,” and he often stays long after
practice working with the team’shim an opportunity to develop,
he has always risen to the level
around him.’ ”
Hughes wasn’t just the first
person to give Parham a chance;
he was the only one. No other
school offered Parham an oppor-
tunity to play college football
after his senior year in Lakeland,
Fla. Back then he was a gangly
6-7, 200-pound basketball player
turned tight end who had only
played regularly for one season.
It was hard to see what he could
be for a college team.
“When he turned sideways and
stuck his tongue out, he looked
like a zipper,” Hughes said.
Hughes was desperate,
though. He had been the coach at
Princeton for 10 seasons before
going to Stetson to revive a
program in 2013 that had been
dormant for 57 years. The school
was just finishing its second
season when one of Hughes’s
defensive coaches spotted Par-
ham and imagined he could be a
defensive end. Once Parham got
to campus, the Stetson coaches
realized he caught every ball
thrown to him, so they moved
him back to tight end and worked
on building his strength.
At first, Hughes recalled, Par-
ham was “not the hardest work-
er” — he talked about a dream of
playing professional football but
didn’t seem to know how to get
there. The coaches encouraged
him to spend lots of time in the
weight room and slowly he got
stronger, putting on 10 pounds
each of his four years at the
school, eventually adding 43
pounds of what the school’s tight(both the Football Bowl Subdivi-
sion and the lower-tier Football
Championship Subdivision,
where Parham played) with aver-
ages of 9.4 catches and 146.6
yards per game. The Redskins are
hoping he can translate all of that
potential to the pros.
“They said they could really
see the potential in me and they
could see me grow, and I was just
happy,” Parham said at the end of
one recent practice.
If he had gone to a big college
from one of the major conferenc-
es, he probably would have been
picked in this spring’s draft. But
because he came from a fledgling
FCS program in Florida that has
only been playing games for six
seasons, and because he is rela-
tively new to the sport, NFL
teams don’t seem to know what
to make of him. It took four failed
tryouts with other teams before
the Redskins finally signed him
late in their offseason workouts.
And yet in five days of training
camp, Parham has been hard to
ignore, and not just because he
stands a whole helmet taller than
the rest of the team.
On Sunday, the first day Wash-
ington’s players were in full pads,
he caught three touchdowns in
red zone drills — all on passes
that no defender would have
been able to bring in.
“I told all the NFL scouts who
came by, ‘If you’ll be patient with
him, he will make a practice
squad,’ ” Stetson Coach Roger
Hughes said in a phone inter-
view. “I said to them, ‘If you giveREDSKINS FROM D1Redskins training camp
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POSTA tense Tuesday
Redskins linebacker Myles Humphrey, left, battles tackle Geron Christian. Washington had its first two fights of training camp Tuesday.
“I think [the defense] wanted to fight today because [the offense] did good the last practice that we had,” tight end Jeremy Sprinkle said.Excerpted from
washingtonpost.com/redskins
Team hopes to reach
deal with T Penn
Former Tampa Bay
Buccaneers and Oakland
Raiders tackle Donald Penn
met with the Washington
Redskins on Tuesday, and the
team was hoping to sign him
to a one-year contract later in
the day, according to a person
with knowledge of the
situation who spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
If the 36-year-old Penn
signs, he would be the second
tackle the Redskins have
added in recent days, as star
left tackle Trent Williams’s
holdout stretches into the
second week of training camp.
Penn worked out Friday along
with another veteran tackle,
Corey Robinson, who signed a
one-year deal with
Washington after the session
while Penn left without a
contract. At the time,
Redskins officials expressed
hope both players would
eventually sign.
Penn’s arrival would allow
the team to move former New
York Giants tackle Ereck
Flowers to left guard, where
coaches hope he can compete
for a starting spot. Flowers
spent the first few days of
camp at left tackle but played
some at guard Tuesday.
Penn is a three-time Pro
Bowl honoree and will have
some familiarity with the
Redskins’ offense, having
played for Coach Jay Gruden’s
brother, Jon, in Oakland last
year. Both Grudens run a
similar offense.
Tempers boil over
The temperature at training
camp has increased, and so
has the general chippiness
among players — and with it
came the first two player
fights on Tuesday.
Fights are inevitable every
year, and there was tension in
the air after a week of
offensive and defensive
players banging up against
each other. Add in the fact
that the defense had a day off
to stew over the offense’s best
effort of camp Sunday, and it
led to fisticuffs.
“I think they wanted to
fight today because we did
good the last practice that we
had,” tight end Jeremy
Sprinkle said. “They’re trying
to get us back or whatever, but
it’s been good. I think the
heat’s helped a lot in just
getting us going a little bit.”
The first incident came
between defensive lineman
JoJo Wicker and offensive
lineman Tyler Catalina. There
was some extra shoving after
the play, and Catalina threw a
punch to Wicker’s face mask.
As things escalated and others
began shoving, defensive
tackle Tim Settle came flying
in from the side to knock
Catalina to the ground and
start a wrestling match.
“The intensity, those guys
on the other side of the ball,
they’re such competitors and
they’re all great athletes,”
Catalina said. “They’re all
pretty much top draft picks, so
they want to be the alpha
dogs. They want to dominate
every day, and that’s the same
thing we want to do on the
offensive side of the ball. So
when we come together
during team periods, it’s a lot
of competing and a lot of fun.
“Just a culmination of all
the pads and heat, probably.
But we’re all good. It’s just
football.”
Two plays later, safety
Montae Nicholson and
Sprinkle were engaged after
the whistle and Sprinkle
ended up on the ground.
Nicholson stood over him
refusing to move, and
Sprinkle jumped back up and
basically tackled the safety.
“We don’t mean it out here,”
Sprinkle said of his altercation
with Nicholson. “Stuff
happens.... That’s my boy.”
“It’s football. You get tired
of going against the same
dude day in and day out,”
defensive lineman Jonathan
Allen said. “It’s hot, you’re
tired, your coach is yelling at
you. It’s football. It’s physical.
It’s a man’s game. A lot of
testosterone. Honestly, to me,
that’s normal. Obviously, you
don’t want it to get out of
hand, but anything that
happens on the field stays on
the field.”
— Kareem Copeland
and Les Carpenter
REDSKINS NOTESGruden says Quinn has
the slot position ‘locked’Trey Quinn motioned from left to
right Tuesday, moments before Case
Keenum received the snap. Quinn ran
a drag route and was left uncovered as
Keenum made the easy throw. The
second-year receiver turned upfield
with plenty of room to run.
The sound of Quinn screaming,
“Woo! Woo! Woo!” while running was
audible from the sideline before he
was stopped just shy of the end zone.
Teammates paused for a second to
watch Quinn power-spike the ball in
celebration, something he broke out
Sunday.
There are high expectations for the
final pick of the 2018 draft out of SMU.
Though Quinn played just threegames and spent most of the season
on injured reserve, the Redskins did
not sign a veteran to replace slot
receiver Jamison Crowder, who got a
$28.5 million free agent deal with the
New York Jets in the spring. Rookies
Terry McLaurin and Kelvin Harmon
were added through the draft.
“Trey Quinn’s got the inside spot
pretty much locked down,” Coach Jay
Gruden said. “He’s a very versatile
player, but we just have to get him the
ball and see how he does.... When it’s
time to catch the ball, he’s going to
make the play and get separation. I
think he has shown that ability the
time that we’ve had him here.”
Quinn, however, would rather be
viewed as the underdog than be
praised. That fit perfectly last season
when he was Mr. Irrelevant,
shadowing Crowder and looking tolearn for the future. Sooner than
expected, the future is now.Haskins inconsistent
Rookie Dwayne Haskins had his best
practice of training camp Sunday,
when nearly everything seemed to
work. Some inconsistency returned
Tuesday. The No. 15 overall pick had
some nice throws, including a deep
touchdown to Vernon Davis and a
deep cross to Cam Sims. Matt
Flanagan and J.P. Holtz would have
also had good gains if not for drops.
But Haskins also held on to the ball
too long for a pair of sacks during a
team period and had a pair of
interceptions to Marquis Flowers and
Jimmy Moreland in a two-minute
drill.
— Kareem CopelandOBSERVATIONSExcerpted from washingtonpost.com/redskinsASSOCIATED PRESSAndrew Luck’s injured left leg
isn’t getting any better.
So the Indianapolis Colts are
sitting down their biggest star.
Luck missed Tuesday’s practice
in suburban Indianapolis after
telling coaches his strained calf
felt worse following the first week
of training camp. Coach Frank
Reich announced Luck would be
sidelined at least three more days
and would miss next week’s pre-
season opener at Buffalo.
“I’ve made progress ever since I
started working on this issue, but
the progress wasn’t enough. It
wasn’t enough,” Luck said. “I feel
like something’s going to yank,
something’s going to pull trying to
change directions aggressively.
That’s something you need to do to
play football, and I’m not there
yet.”
On Sunday, Luck walked with a
slight limp between plays and
missed some throws, albeit in
breezy conditions. After every-
body took Monday off, Luck met
with Reich and the team’s medical
staff and explained he still felt
soreness in the leg and pain
around his ankle.
FALCONS: For the second
straight year, Julio Jones will sit
out Atlanta’s preseason schedule.
Jones said he will be coaching
the team’s younger wide receivers
in Thursday night’s Hall of Fame
game against the Denver Broncos
in Canton, Ohio.
Jones and the Falcons continue
to negotiate a contract extension.
Jones said his preseason plan has
nothing to do with those talks.
BENGALS: A.J. Green had
ankle surgery and is expected to
miss the start of the season.
Green hurt his left ankle during
the opening practice of camp Sat-
urday in Dayton, Ohio, landing
awkwardly after cornerback Dre
Kirkpatrick bumped into the star
receiver while breaking up a pass.
Coach Zac Taylor is hopeful
Green won’t miss “more than a
couple of games.” The Bengals
open the season at Seattle on Sept.
8, then host San Francisco fol-
lowed by road games against Buf-
falo and Pittsburgh.
It’s the second straight season
Green has suffered a significant
injury. He had surgery to repair an
injury to his right big toe that
sidelined him for half of last sea-
son.
JETS: Wide receiver Jamison
Crowder has been cleared by the
team to practice after an injury
scare.
Crowder hurt his left foot dur-
ing practice Monday and walked
with a noticeable limp as he left
the field. Coach Adam Gase said
Crowder would have tests, includ-
ing an MRI exam, to determine the
nature and severity of the injury.
The tests apparently came back
clear of bad news: The team an-
nounced Crowder is expected to
rejoin his teammates at practice
Wednesday.
SEAHAWKS: First-round
draft pick L.J. Collier was carted
off the practice field with a right
leg injury.
Collier was rushing the passer
during a team session when he
grabbed at his lower leg. The team
didn’t offer specifics on the injury.
Collier was attended to on the
field for a brief time before limp-
ing off and eventually needing a
cart to get back to the locker room.
Trainers appeared to be looking at
Collier’s ankle.
Offensive tackle Duane Brown
was one of the first to get to Collier
and said it “looked like he was in a
lot of pain.”
Collier was selected with the
29th pick in the first round of the
draft in April.
BROWNS: Cleveland will
honor Hall of Fame quarterback
Otto Graham with a statue outside
FirstEnergy Stadium.
Graham played 10 seasons with
Cleveland, leading the Browns to a
title game in each one.
In his final game, in 1955,
Graham threw for two touch-
downs and ran for two in a 38-14
win over the Los Angeles Rams for
the NFL title. For his career, he
passed for 23,584 yards with 174
passing touchdowns and 44 rush-
ing.
Graham was inducted in the
Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965.
He died in 2003 at 82.
The Browns will unveil the stat-
ue in September. It will be the
second by the team, following one
of Hall of Fame running back Jim
Brown in 2016.NFL NOTESColts’ Luck
out with
nagging
calf injury
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
9:45 to 11:45 a.m., practice4:40 to 5:40 p.m., walk-throughREDSKINS’ EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Aug. 8 at Browns, 7:30 p.m.Aug. 15 vs. Bengals, 7:30 p.m.
Aug. 22 at Falcons, 7:30 p.m.
Aug. 29 vs. Ravens, 7:30 p.m.REDSKINS’ SEASON OPENER
Sept. 8 at Eagles, 1 p.m. MORE ONLINE
Visit washingtonpost.com/redskinsParham hopes to stand tall as a Redskins tight end