Sam LaPorta

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• Camp · Aug 23, 2026Aug 23, 2026

  Sam LaPorta Camp Update — August 23: A Hip Injury Interrupts the Comeback

  LaPorta was held out of Thursday's practice with a hip injury — a new problem, unrelated to the surgically repaired back, and so far without any attributed timeline. After a month of clean rehab reporting, the first mark just went on the ledger.

• Camp · Aug 16, 2026Aug 17, 2026

  Sam LaPorta Camp Update — August 16: Cleared, Terrific, and Shaking Rust

  LaPorta was cleared for camp coming off back surgery, and the beat's words since are terrific and shaking rust. The first checkpoint we set in June has been passed.

• 2026 PreviewJun 15, 2026

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

  LaPorta's 2025 season ended after 9 games with a herniated disc, producing 9.7 half-PPR points per game inside a productive Detroit offense before the injury shut him down. His role in that offense was real, but the season's outcome hinged on staying healthy in a stretch where he ultimately couldn't — and at 82.4% availability across his career, durability is the thread worth watching rather than any single efficiency number.

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  Show notes & transcript

  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: 40 catches for 489 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, 97-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: 11-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.

  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 82, the eighth tight end. 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. If he's one of your guys, Muffed builds this show for your whole roster — every player, every week, all season.

• 2025 ReviewMay 11, 2026

  Sam LaPorta 2025 Season in Review

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  Show notes & transcript

  Sam LaPorta finished 2025 as the number 27 tight end in total PPR scoring — but the number 7 tight end in PPR per game among players with at least six games. That gap tells the whole story: when LaPorta was on the field, he was a top-tier fantasy tight end. He just only played nine games. This was an availability-shortened year on top of a healthy usage profile in a top-five passing offense, and the per-game rate confirms the talent never left. LaPorta's 2025 isn't decline — it's nine missed weeks that gutted the total line while the rate stats stayed loud.

  Now let's dig into the numbers. Across those nine games, LaPorta caught 40 balls on 49 targets for 489 yards and 3 touchdowns — an 82 percent catch rate on a 19 percent target share, a genuine featured-pass-catcher workload in an offense where Amon-Ra St. Brown saw 172 targets. He averaged 11.9 PPR per game, but the tell is the variance: this was boom-or-bust, not steady floor. Four games above 13 PPR, including a 21.7-point peak against the Vikings and a 20.2-point game in Cincinnati — paired with floor games of 4.5, 5.6, and 6.9. When Jared Goff and the passing game leaned tight end, LaPorta smashed. When the script went elsewhere, he disappeared. The touchdown ecosystem was there too — the Lions ranked fifth in red-zone touchdown rate at 69.6 percent and Goff threw 34 touchdowns, second in the league. LaPorta got 3 of them. That's the single biggest drag on the total-points ranking.

  The play that captures the per-game upside came in week 9 against Minnesota. Fourth and four from the Vikings' 40, scoreless first quarter, and Goff went deep middle to LaPorta out of the shotgun — 40-yard touchdown. 20 in the air, 20 after the catch, on a converted fourth down. That's the LaPorta archetype in one snap: trusted on a high-leverage down, used as a real vertical threat from the tight end spot, finishing in the end zone. When he was healthy and the plan involved him, Detroit wasn't using him as a checkdown. They were using him as a weapon — and the per-game ranking reflects exactly that.