The Kansas City Chiefs should kick the tires on DeVante Parker

The Miami Dolphins are going to let former first round wideout DeVante Parker walk, and the Chiefs would do well to at least kick the tires.

The Miami Dolphins are finished with the experiment. Their position is understandable since DeVante Parker has failed to stay healthy over the long-term and, even when on the field, he’s yet to blossom into the matchup nightmare envisioned when they selected him in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft.

The Dolphins are reportedly going to let Parker leave in free agency after trying to develop and depend upon Parker for the last four seasons. At this point, given their other wideout acquisitions (including former Chiefs WR Albert Wilson), Parker isn’t needed and the team has tired of holding out any expectations.

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Four picks before the Chiefs struck (short-term) gold with cornerback Marcus Peters, the Dolphins selected Parker in the hopes that the Louisville product would elevate their passing game and allow Ryan Tannehill to turn the corner as a franchise quarterback. The health concerns were present even then, but the production was worth the worry—or at least it seemed.

Even during Parker’s final year at Louisville, he missed more games than he played and sat the first seven games of the season. Parker returned for only six games yet ended with a final stat line of 43 catches for 855 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns. That’s good for a per-game average of 7 catches, 142 receiving yards, and nearly 1 touchdown.

The injury problems have only continued at the professional level. Some players just seem particularly cursed, and Parker is definitely one such person. Last year it was a broken finger and quad injury. In 2017 it was an ankle sprain. In 2016, it was a hamstring injury. In 2015 it was torn scar tissue from the broken foot he’d suffered in 2014. You get the picture. The upside is that not a single one of his injuries were anything long-term. It’s just that you never quite know when something will happen.

Parker also got in the doghouse of Dolphins head coach Adam Gase and couldn’t seem to escape it. It didn’t help that Parker’s agent called Gase incompetent, but he was upset at the head coach for reportedly lying about his client’s health.

Essentially, Parker never proved productive enough to counter health concerns or headaches.

Enter the Kansas City Chiefs. The team already made a major investment into a wide receiver who kinda/sorta fit the same mold (health concerns, culture clashes) and the results were solid. While Sammy Watkins missed several games last year, fans could also see what Brett Veach was envisioning when he added him. With Watkins in the lineup, the Chiefs were truly unstoppable.

What if a Watkins-esque player were available on the cheap—maybe even the ridiculously cheap?

Remember this: the Chiefs took a late-season flyer on another player with injury and character concerns at the wide receiver position when they signed Kelvin Benjamin. The results were undetermined since Benjamin hardly rotated into the offense at all, but it showed interest on Veach’s part to kick the tires on a former first-round wide receiver. It was clear the front office and/or coaching staff wanted to see up close what Benjamin could potentially bring.

It makes sense, then, for the Chiefs to do the same with DeVante Parker and at least see what he could bring to the table with a free agent visit and workout. What if Parker had a good explanation for the clash with Adam Gase? (Remember Gase was fired and Parker wasn’t the only frustrated player.) What if Parker’s health checks out well?

As an incoming prospect, Parker had scouts raving about his ability to use his size (6’3, 216 lbs.) to be an aggressive, physical receiver who can come away with the ball in almost any scenario. Given a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes who can keep nearly any play alive, a downfield receiver like Parker could frustrate offenses as a jump-ball option—another offensive wrinkle for a team already loaded on that side of the ball.

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