July 12, 2026, 5:46 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
Even after a season-ending injury, NFL executives, coaches and scouts consider Sam LaPorta one of the league’s finest tight ends.<\/p>\n
The Detroit Lions<\/a> star underwent back surgery<\/a> last November to repair a herniated disc. Lions<\/a> head coach Dan Campbell said last month that LaPorta is “trending the right way”<\/a> for Detroit’s 2026 training camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n As LaPorta continues to rehab and work himself back into form, ESPN’s survey of NFL executives, coaches and scouts indicates that folks around the league believe LaPorta will resemble his pre-injury self.<\/p>\n LaPorta was ranked as the No. 4 tight end in the NFL per ESPN’s survey of NFL executives, coaches and scouts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite LaPorta’s low production due to injury, evaluators did not see a drop-off in his play. He appeared in nine games and produced a career-low 40 catches for 489 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n But his playmaking was evident in the open field. LaPorta averaged 2.25 yards after first contact per reception, leading the top-10 group. His 6.9 yards after the catch per reception topped all tight ends.<\/p>\n “He’s got great hands — he’ll make a lot of circus, contested catches, especially in the red zone — and his blocking is high level,” an NFC scout said. “Just an all-around problem.” – Jeremy Fowler, ESPN<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n At the time, LaPorta’s 86 grabs in 2023 set the NFL rookie tight end record for receptions. LaPorta reeled in 10 touchdowns and totaled 889 receiving yards during his rookie season. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound tight end was a second-team All-Pro in 2023 and a Pro Bowler.<\/p>\n Then, in 2024, LaPorta registered 60 catches for 726 yards with seven scores.<\/p>\n The ESPN survey shows the type of respect that LaPorta carries around the league. LaPorta was ranked as high as No. 3 on some voting ballots.<\/p>\n The top three tight ends were Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> tight end Brock Bowers (No. 1), Arizona Cardinals<\/a> tight end Trey McBride (No. 2) and San Francisco 49ers<\/a> tight end George Kittle (No. 3).<\/p>\n For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Josh on X,\u00a0@JoshOnLions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 12, 2026, 5:46 a.m. ET Even after a season-ending injury, NFL executives, coaches and scouts consider Sam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[202558,64,63,593,357104,85,278293,278294,203469,368851,203487,203148,203478,203146,203142,203149,202563,278295,203139,374032,202561],"class_list":["post-795347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-accessfree","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sourcelions-wire","tag-sports","tag-sstssportsnfllions","tag-sstsnlions","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbrock-bowers","tag-tagdetroit-lions","tag-tagespn-inc","tag-taggeorge-kittle","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsam-laporta","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtrey-mcbride","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}