Sam LaPorta
LaPorta is Detroit's clear No. 1 tight end and a steady, complementary pass-catcher who has been trending up in volume through five games.
Role
Pride of Detroit's Week 5 snap counts show LaPorta at 59 snaps (89%), Brock Wright at 44 (67%) and Tyler Conklin at 8 (12%). Jackson Meeks was inactive. Rotowire's earlier four-game snap table also listed him first at TE, with Wright second. Rotowire had him at 19.6% of team targets through Week 4. That came on 32 targets, including 13 in Week 4. Rotoball says he has five-plus catches in four of five games. CBS/Rotowire called him a complementary piece behind Jahmyr Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown early in the season. Wright is the main competition for TE snaps. The sources I found don't give a route-run share.
He leads the position group in snaps by a wide margin and has caught a touchdown in three of five games, per Rotoball. He had season highs in targets, catches, yards and a touchdown in Week 4, then caught all five targets in Week 5, including a 38-yard touchdown. PFF's page, as indexed, showed a top-six receiving grade among TEs. Rotowire lists a 0.0% drop rate and a 68.8% catch rate.
The offense is spread across Gibbs, St. Brown and others. In Week 3, five Lions had at least three targets, and LaPorta had his quietest game with four. Week 5 was only five targets, and some of his production is touchdown-driven. Wright still takes about two-thirds of the snaps, which suggests two-TE sets. Contract talk also adds uncertainty: Fox Sports and other outlets note he has no extension, and a trade has been floated by commentary pieces. Nothing I found reports a trade as actually happening.
Where analysts split
Broad agreement on his role as the top TE. The open question is how much target volume he keeps in an offense built around Gibbs and St. Brown. Week 4 gave him 13 targets and Week 5 gave him five. Separately, the contract stalemate has prompted trade speculation, which I could not confirm as anything more than opinion pieces.
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
Others at TE
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