Sam LaPorta 2026 Season Preview — an elite role, a back surgery | Muffed

Sam LaPorta was on his way to another strong tight-end season when a herniated disc ended his year on the operating table. Healthy, he's a top-tier target in a great offense; coming off back surgery, he's a question. He's the eighth tight end off the board. The Muffed 2026 preview.

The 2025 season was a strong-but-short nine games: forty catches for four hundred eighty-nine yards and three touchdowns, nine-seven a game, the number-seven tight end per game before a Week 10 back injury required surgery and ended his season. The signature was a six-catch, ninety-seven-yard, one-score day against Minnesota in Week 9, right before the injury. A reliable, productive role cut short.

The arc is a strong rookie year and a settling since: eleven-five a game as a rookie — a top-tight-end season — then nine-oh and nine-seven. He's plateaued into a solid TE1, a step below his debut but firmly useful.

What the data says: the role is real and his touchdown rate is low, a positive-regression note, but the production has settled into the TE7-to-TE8 range his price reflects. There's no big edge in the numbers — the swing factor is entirely the back.

[[SITUATION]]

The situation, per the reports, is the uncertainty — unresolved but pointed the right way: LaPorta has not practiced since November's herniated-disc surgery; he was limited to walk-throughs all spring, and at June minicamp Dan Campbell grouped him with the still-mending — "improving, but not practicing yet" — while saying he's "trending the right way" for training camp. Not cleared is the operative phrase. It's also a contract year: the GM has said publicly he wants an extension done, but nothing's signed. And he'll be learning Drew Petzing's new offense while rehabbing, in a loaded room — Goff, Amon-Ra, Jameson Williams, Gibbs — that both floors his quality and caps his target ceiling.

The price: pick eighty-two, the eighth tight end. [pause] Verdict: WATCHLIST — priced about at his recent production, with a back surgery as the genuine unknown on either side. The counter for him: a proven top-eight tight end in a great offense, with low-touchdown upside, is fine value at TE8 if the back holds. Against: back injuries are unpredictable, he hasn't practiced yet, and Detroit spreads the ball. Fair price, real health question.

September watch: the back — a camp-opening practice window first, then availability and whether the explosiveness returns; and the target share in a crowded offense running a new scheme. [[CLOSE]] If he's one of your guys, Muffed builds this show for your whole roster — every player, every week, all season.