Sam LaPorta Camp Update — August 31: On Track for Week One Barring a Setback

The hip resolved the way the beat's calm suggested it would: Sam LaPorta returned to practice Tuesday and is on track to be available for Week One against New Orleans barring a setback, per Maliha Akter at Pro Football Network, with Dan Campbell describing the hip as "a little aggravated" and saying the team feels "good long-term about him." He made the initial roster first among three tight ends, per Tim Twentyman at the team's website, and carries no entry on Justin Rogers's injury tracker at the Detroit Football Network. The one honest limit on the good news: he did not play Saturday's 25 to 16 finale win at Indianapolis, so the last live look of the summer came and went without him.

The room behind him changed shape on cut day. The third tight end job went to Jackson Meeks, a second-year receiver converted to the position, over veteran Tyler Conklin, per Twentyman — Twentyman citing special-teams value, and Meeks having caught a six-yard touchdown in the finale. Conklin was released, per Dave Birkett at the Detroit Free Press. One roster-wide note bears on LaPorta directly: Detroit kept only four wide receivers, per Twentyman, which makes the tight end group a bigger share of the pass-catching roster than it was a week ago.

Back in June we said LaPorta's role was never the question — the swing factor was his body, coming off the back surgery that ended last season — and a week ago the hip became the first new mark on that ledger. It's now the first mark closed: it cost him practice days and nothing else so far, and both halves of what we said to watch — whether he practiced this week, and whether anyone attached a Week One qualifier — landed on the right side of the line. Not "cleared," to be precise about the sourced language: returned, and on track barring a setback. We'll check back as the opener comes into focus.

_Data via nflverse._