Sam

LaPorta

LaPorta began the year as a ghost, catching more than two passes in two of his first six games. He suffered a low-ankle sprain early in the year and an AC joint injury in Week 11. The combo of injuries had a noticeable impact on his play and his involvement in the offense. LaPorta surpassed 54 yards once over the first 14 weeks of the season. The young tight end started to find his footing late in the year and topped that mark in four of his final games, including his first 100-yard outing of the season which came in a Week 15 shootout with Buffalo. Every part of his 60/726/7 receiving line presented a downturn from his rookie campaign. LaPorta is still a strong fantasy option based on his weekly upside and touchdown potential, but the Lions simply have too many talented pass-catchers to make him an every-week feature of the passing game. He will fall into the second tier of tight ends when early fantasy drafts roll around.

LaPorta continued his recent stretch of increased involvement through the air after a relatively slow start to the season, by his lofty standards. Both teams struggled to move the football with any consistency in the first half, but the Lions surged after the break on the backs of three second half touchdowns from running back Jahmyr Gibbs. The commanding victory held quarterback Jared Goff to just 33 pass attempts, which kept LaPorta, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Jameson Williams all at seven or eight targets on the evening. The win clinches the No. 1 seed, the only playoff bye, and home field advantage for the Lions as they prepare for the Super Bowl journey.

LaPorta caught the second of three touchdown passes from quarterback Jared Goff as the Lions kept momentum heading into their conference-deciding home matchup with the division rival Vikings in Week 18. The touchdown pushes his season total to seven, all of which have come in the previous 11 games. Expect LaPorta to remain busy against the pass-funnel Vikings next week.

There’s nothing offensive coordinator Ben Johnson loves more than a trick play touchdown for Sam LaPorta, and he was in his bag today. Jared Goff pretended to bungle the snap and stumbled to the ground before gathering himself and uncorking a deep shot to LaPorta in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. Although the bulk of his fantasy production came on this play, LaPorta was heavily involved in the game plan throughout the contest, earning his second-highest target total of the year. The second-year tight end has seen six or more targets in seven of his past eight games. Now fully out of his slump, LaPorta is firmly in the TE1 ranks for Week 17.

The Lions threw the ball 60 times in this game while playing the whole thing from behind, so that certainly worked in Sam LaPorta’s favor. The Bills also seemed content to let the Lions gain chunk plays over the middle of the field as long as they didn’t hit any big plays deep, which meant plenty of work for LaPorta in the intermediate areas. The passing volume may not be as high next week against the Bears, but LaPorta remains a TE1.

Both LaPorta’s five grabs and 54 yards were his second most of the season, which tells you all you need to know about how his fantasy campaign has been going. This evening he was out-targeted by both Jameson Williams and Tim Patrick. For whatever reason — perhaps injury considering how many ailments LaPorta has been listed with since last January — it just isn’t happening for the second-year pro. He’ll slot somewhere into the TE10-14 range for Week 15 against a Bills defense that is best attacked on the ground.

It would’ve been an abysmal day for LaPorta and his fantasy managers if it had not been for his two touchdowns. LaPorta found the end zone on a three-yard touchdown early in the second quarter and was on the receiving end of a one-yard score late in the third quarter. LaPorta has seen six targets in each of his last three games, but the production just hasn’t been there for the promising young tight end as of late. The two touchdowns were nice, but hopefully LaPorta can do a bit more with his volume in Week 14 against the Packers, where he feels like a boom-or-bust TE1.

It was a good news/bad news outing for LaPorta, who matched his season high for targets but was held under 20 yards for the first time since Week 2. It’s also bad news, of course, that his season high for looks is only six. Whether it is injury or target competition, it just isn’t happening for LaPorta this season, who will probably struggle to provide short-week TE1 returns against the Bears on Thanksgiving.

LaPorta is good to go, as expected. The second-year tight end has finished as a TE1 in three of his last five games and can be safely started as such with six teams on bye in Week 12.

As expected, LaPorta practiced in full for the second consecutive day. The Lions’ brilliant handling of his shoulder injury last week helped ready LaPorta for a full workload against the Colts’ paltry tight end-coverage unit. He is a locked-in TE1 for Week 12.