July 21, 2026, 6:45 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
As the 2026 NFL season beckons, CBS Sports compiled a list of star players who could be in line for a franchise tag<\/a> after this upcoming season. CBS identified who the Detroit Lions<\/a> may be looking at as a prime candidate for such a maneuver.<\/p>\n Each year, NFL teams are allowed to retain the rights to one of their impending free agents with the use of a franchise or transition tag during a 15-day period beginning on the 22nd day before the start of the upcoming league year and ending at 4 p.m. ET on the eighth day prior to the start of the upcoming league year. The designation window in 2027 will be from Feb. 17 to March 3.<\/p>\n According to CBS’ Joel Corry, the Lions<\/a>‘ likely 2027 franchise tag candidate is tight end Sam LaPorta.<\/p>\n The Lions are among the NFL’s most proactive teams at locking up core players before the expiration of rookie contracts. This philosophy could work to LaPorta’s advantage. LaPorta had a fast start to his career. He set a single-season rookie record for a tight end with 86 receptions in 2023, which was broken by Brock Bowers the following year, and earned second-team All-Pro honors in the process.<\/p>\n LaPorta missed the final eight games last season with a herniated disc in his back, which required surgery. The most recent relevant data point in the tight end market is the three-year, $53 million contract, averaging $17,666,667 per year, with $36 million fully guaranteed Pitts signed with the Falcons in June as a franchise player. – Joel Corry, CBS Sports<\/p>\n Before his season-ending injury, LaPorta had totaled 40 receptions for 489 yards with three touchdowns in 2025. Lions general manager Brad Holmes could still iron out a long-term extension with LaPorta before or during the 2026 NFL season if he and the front office see that LaPorta looks like himself this coming season.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n But, if there’s a hiccup in negotiations or if the Lions want a longer runway to evaluate LaPorta’s injury recovery, the franchise tag could turn into a valuable option.<\/p>\n For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Scout on X:\u00a0@SpringgateNews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 21, 2026, 6:45 a.m. ET As the 2026 NFL season beckons, CBS Sports compiled a list of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[159202,49,48,514,265093,82,217611,217612,160670,163636,165972,286327,160694,162914,162523,180462,187465,198909,195544,159798,187464,286328,160668,160683,159088,267483,187466,159089,162524,159085],"class_list":["post-816290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-accessfree","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sourcelions-wire","tag-sports","tag-sstssportsnfllions","tag-sstsnlions","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbig-10-hub","tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","tag-tagbrad-holmes","tag-tagcbs-corp","tag-tagdetroit-lions","tag-tagfacebook","tag-tagiowa","tag-tagiowa-hawkeyes","tag-tagiowa-hawkeyes-football","tag-tagmichigan","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagncaa-big-ten-conference","tag-tagnfc-north","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsam-laporta","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtwitter","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}