LA Rams Place Top TE Tyler Higbee on PUP List

Tyler Higbee’s Bio and Stats

Higbee played his college ball at Western Kentucky, where, in his senior year, he was named first-team All-Conference USA. The Rams drafted him in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft.

Over his eight-year career with the Rams, Higbee has been a model of consistency and reliability. In his rookie season, he played in all 16 of the Rams’ games, and started seven of those games. From 2017 through 2023, Higbee missed only five out of 114 regular season games. He started in 109 regular season games over that period of time. Furthermore, he started in all ten of the Rams’ postseason games during that span, including the championship game in Super Bowl LVI.

The Rams awarded Higbee a four-year $31 million contract extension in 2019. And, he is now on a two-year $17 million contract for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. In the 2024 season, the Rams will take a cap hit of $12,608,631 for Higbee’s contract — 4.9% of the team’s 2024 cap space.

Thus, until now, Higbee’s career has been remarkably free of serious injuries.

The PUP List

Here’s what the PUP list is:

“The PUP list is a designation for players who are physically unable to perform football activities due to football-related injuries. Players on the list can participate in team activities but are not allowed to practice.

“There is both an active/PUP list and a reserve/PUP list. For the active/PUP list, players are designated during training camp and count toward a team’s 90-man roster. Players can be can be removed from the list at any time during camp, but they can’t be placed back on it. If a player is on this list on the day of final roster cuts, they must be put on the reserve/PUP list, released or traded. Otherwise, they’re counted against the 53-man roster.

“Teams must decide who’s going on the Reserve/PUP list before final cuts are made.

“Players placed on the reserve/PUP list amid 53-man roster deadline cuts must sit out at least the team’s first four games. Before 2022, players had to miss six games. Players can be activated immediately after the four games have passed.

According to McVay, Higbee will be available to play at the beginning of the regular season with the PUP designation. However, “given the nature and … timing of [his] injury, that is highly unlikely.”

Per the Cleveland Clinic, ACL injuries like that suffered by Higbee typically involve a six- to nine-month recovery period after surgery.  Higbee underwent surgery on January 17, 2024.

The Path Forward

If Higbee is not available at the beginning of the 2024 regular season, the Rams appear to be in a position to capably fill his spot. As Sports Illustrated reports:

Fortunately for L.A., they now have plenty of depth at the tight end spot with second-year tight end Davis Allen, who is coming off a strong finish to the season. Allen finished his rookie year 10 catches for 95 yards and a score in the regular season and had two catches for 28 yards in the playoff loss to Detroit. Allen did not make his first catch until Nov. 26.

The Rams also signed former Seahawks tight end Colby Parkinson, who is heading into his fifth NFL season. Parkinson spent the last four years with Seattle, playing in 54 games with four starts, and making 57 catches on 78 targets for 618 yards and four scores.

McVay expressed confidence in tight ends coach/pass game coordinator Nick Caley to deftly manage the team’s tight end situation. Caley recently eschewed an offer to become the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots in favor of staying on  with the Rams.

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