Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

Parker Twins Turn 21, Hoping Good Health Comes Next

The brothers, both dealing with injuries from last season, are still looking to play together in a game.
Dan Raley|
Armon Parker (95) and Jayvon Parker (94) are trying to overcome injuries and give the UW some help on the defensive front.
Armon Parker (95) and Jayvon Parker (94) are trying to overcome injuries and give the UW some help on the defensive front. | Skylar Lin Visuals

As the Parker twins each celebrated their 21st birthday on Monday, the creative staff for the University of Washington football team posted photos on social media of the brothers together at practice, in the weight room and at the Sun Bowl to commemorate the moment.

Everywhere except the two of them playing side by side as defensive tackles in a Husky game with all of the fall pageantry.

If Armon and Jayvon Parker could ask for any sort of gift or future promise to be fulfilled from their day it would be that they finally get to take the field together when everything counts and show their coaches, teammates and UW fans what exatly that might look like.

Yet they remain the hard-luck Parkers, with Armon suffering a pair of season-ending knee injuries that have prevented him from playing in any UW games since he arrived in Montlake and Jayvon rupturing an Achilles heel tendon just as he was beginning to play his best college football.

It seems hard to believe, but these siblings from Detroit are now entering their fourth season in Seattle. They're still resolutely waiting for everything to kick in for them as players. They each have at least two more UW seasons to play.

As they say, the brothers are 21 and legal now, so there shouldn't be any limitations on them in going wherever they want to go.

"I feel for them," UW coach Jedd Fisch said. "They work extremely hard. They come in with a great attitude every day. Those are fluke injuries that occurred."

At least Jayvon Parker has provided a glimpse of what is possible by playing almost immediately as a freshman in 2022 for Kalen DeBoer's staff. In three seasons, he's appeared in 25 games and collected 19 tackles, including a sack and a half.

This past season, this 6-foot-3, 297-pound Parker played so well at Rutgers that Pro Football Focus graded his performance as the third best among defensive tackles nationally that day. It mattered little that he didn't start the game or that he came off the field early in the fourth quarter limping badly and done for the day. He did well.

A little heavier at 312 pounds but otherwise identical to his brother, Armon Parker tore up his knee while playing pick-up basketball at home before enrolling at the UW and missed his entire freshman season. He appeared to do the same thing this past spring and sat out yet another full slate of games.

What makes it extra tough is the Parkers are as close as any siblings can be and they haven't been able to share in anything meaningful during their time with the Huskies except being injured at the same time.

The DeBoer staff had people envisioning what the Parkers could be capable of by suggesting that Armon might be a step quicker than Jayvon, who moves fairly well for himself up front.

Fisch's staff patiently is waiting to find out what it really has collectively in this pair of matching Michigan-bred defenders.

"We'll certainly do everything we can to allow [Jayvon] to play as much college football as he can, as his brother can, and hopefully wish them the best to get into pro football," the UW coach said.

The Huskies need a pair of new starting defensive tackles and they've brought in Utah's Simote Pepa and Western Michigan's Anterio Thompson from the transfer portal to provide a veteran presence.

However, if the Parkers were ever able to get totally healthy at the same time and take the field together this coming season, that would be something to celebrate loud and clear before their 22nd birthday.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football