Sam LaPorta Ready to Rise Up Among Top Fantasy Football TEs In Year 4
Ian Hartitz examines the tight ends for the Detroit Lions, and whether Sam LaPorta is ready to reclaim fantasy football prominence.
It was so easy to get overhyped about Sam LaPorta after his 2023 rookie year with 86 catches (on 120 targets) for 889 yards and 10 TDs. Then came an uneven sophomore campaign followed by last year when he missed eight games with a back injury. He's back, but is he ready to get back among elite TEs? Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his Detroit Lions Team Preview.
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What are realistic Year 4 expectations for Sam LaPorta?
- TE1: Sam LaPorta (TE7 in Fantasy Life ranks)
- TE2: Brock Wright
- TE3: Tyler Conklin
LaPorta started off his career with a BANG, finishing as the TE3 (14.1 PPR points per game). Unfortunately, this high-end upside didn't exactly stick, as the Iowa product posted more meh TE9 (10.9) and TE7 (11.9) finishes in 2024 and 2025.
That said, Petzing's Cardinals offenses certainly made a point of prioritizing the tight end, and the potential for more multi-TE formations could help further narrow this offense's target share. Building off the Jameson Williams conversation from above: LaPorta was second on the team in targets (44) ahead of both Williams (36) and Gibbs (31) during the first half of last season!
This is a really good tight end!
Still, it's also worth remembering that a big reason why LaPorta ate so well in 2023 was at least somewhat due to Williams being limited to 12 games due to suspension and injury. It would likely (again) take one of St. Brown or Williams missing a big chunk of time to see LaPorta break into the weekly top-3 conversation again. Fantasy Life Projections have him seeing 85 targets in 2026–just the 11th-highest mark at the position.
It's tough to rationally rank LaPorta outside of the position's top-8 options, but at the same time, I haven't found myself going out of my way to draft him in the middle rounds of early-summer drafts due to the potential to get guys like Dalton Kincaid and Isaiah Likely 3+ rounds later.
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