Is Terrance Ferguson behind schedule?

The 2025 NFL Draft featured two of the highest-rated tight end prospects of the last 10 years in Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren, but as a whole the class was regularly cited as one of the deepest and most talented of the year. Fourth in that order was Terrance Ferguson, the tight end that the Rams drafted 46th overall after Loveland and Warren went in the first 14 picks and then Mason Taylor was 42nd.

It is no secret to Rams fans that Ferguson has been buried on L.A.’s depth chart and a healthy scratch in Week 3 against the Philadelphia Eagles, a game that saw Colby Parkinson, Tyler Higbee, and Davis Allen combine for one catch, three yards, and three targets.

But can you really blame Sean McVay? I mean, Parkinson’s 21 snaps, no targets, probably-replaceable blocking was the only reason the Rams even had a chance to beat the Eagles!

Seeking out any excuse possible for why Ferguson is still less important to the Rams than Parkinson and Davis Allen, a third-year player with a career average of 4.8 yards per game, McVay claimed on his team-sponsored Monday podcast that Allen and Parkinson are better than every piece of evidence indicates and that the rookie’s training camp injury caused him to miss a little bit too much practice:

“I think we’ve got tremendous depth at the tight end position,” he said. “Got a guy in Tyler Higbee who’s been doing it at a high clip for a long time. Colby Parkinson, I think, has taken tremendous steps, as has Davis Allen. And you really look at it, (he) did miss some critical time throughout training camp with the groin injury.”

It’s a very difficult point to argue against: Any NFL player’s most crucial learning time is during his rookie year. Not just the season, but the offseason and the preseason. Ferguson missing training camp would cause him to fall behind veterans in many instances and many players on many teams.

However, Ferguson has been practicing for over a month since his return to training camp. He looked better as a receiver in his only preseason appearance than Allen and Parkinson have ever looked in a Rams uniform. Ferguson is a 22-year-old rookie who played 53 college games at Oregon and though his blocking had been described as “developmental” and “a work in progress” before the draft, nobody ever cited him as a long-term project as if he was Jacob Harris.

If anything, the Rams tight end draft pick who might be most like Ferguson is…Brycen Hopkins. Said to be one of the most “NFL-ready” tight ends in the 2020 draft class, a prospect whose father spent 13 seasons in the NFL, Hopkins was a healthy scratch for most of his first two seasons in the league and only caught one pass for nine yards going into his third year.

Hopkins was not a seventh round pick who gave the Rams a couple of good years. He was...