Sam LaPorta — Week 1: Eight Targets, Plus Three Expected Points
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
LaPorta caught five of eight targets for forty-eight yards Sunday, and the eight were worth plus three point zero expected points, the highest figure for any Lions receiver. Two catches came on the second-drive downs that kept it alive — eight on third and five, nineteen on second and fifteen — and the nine-yard catch on the first snap of overtime started the drive that won it. The one ruled sack-and-fumble that was reversed to an incompletion was a throw meant for him, in a 31–30 win over the Saints.
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The strangest play of Sam LaPorta's day was one he did not touch. Third and 16 at the Detroit 32, nine 34 left in the second quarter, Lions up seven to nothing: Jared Goff was ruled sacked by Chase Young, the ball came loose, Sanker picked it up at the seven and scored. The replay official reviewed it and reversed the whole thing to an incomplete pass, short right, intended for LaPorta. It goes into his line as a target at −1.0 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — instead of a one-point game with a kick to come.
The rest of the line was the best on the team by that measure. Eight targets, five catches, 48 yards, no touchdowns, +3.0 expected points, more than Amon-Ra St. Brown's 14 targets or Jameson Williams's nine produced. Two of the catches held Detroit's second drive together — third and five at the Detroit 16 with eight 51 left in the first, short left for eight; second and 15 at the 30 with seven 32 left, short middle for 19 to the 49 — and that drive ended with Jahmyr Gibbs's first touchdown. A seven-yarder on second and eight from the New Orleans 10 in the third put the ball at the three for the second Gibbs touchdown. And the first snap of overtime, first and 10 at the Detroit 30, was a nine-yard catch to the 39. The three incompletions were the reversed play, a throw from the New Orleans one on first and goal in the third, and a short-left throw on first down from the 25 two snaps before the St. Brown touchdown. Seven air yards on eight targets — the yards came after the catch.
Where he sat: third on the Lions in targets behind St. Brown's 14 and Williams's nine, four targets before halftime and four after, one of two third-down targets caught. Detroit's tight ends had nine throws in all, eight to LaPorta and a five-yarder to Brock Wright. Both Lions passing touchdowns went to St. Brown, and both rushing touchdowns were Gibbs from the one, the second of them three plays after LaPorta's catch to the three.
Back in June the preview's read on LaPorta was an elite role and a back surgery — a season that ended after nine games with the back injury, and a career availability figure of about 82 percent. Sunday does not answer the surgery; it says he played a game that went to overtime and was thrown to in every quarter but the fourth. The role half of the read showed up in the number that matters most here, and one game is one game. Detroit is at the Bills on Thursday the seventeenth. Four days later is the availability test.
_Data via nflverse._
When Sam LaPorta's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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