The injury suffered by Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta will be one to monitor throughout the offseason.
LaPorta suffered a back injury in Week 10 that ultimately required surgery and ended his 2025 season early. While there was hope he might return for a deep playoff run, it appears that was never really an option.
On Wednesday, Lions head coach Dan Campbell admitted that the hope is LaPorta will be ready to go by training camp.
“I feel like next year, that certainly isn’t off the table early in the year. You’d like to believe training camp we’ll get him,” Campbell said, per the team's YouTube page. “But you’re talking about a back. And he’s improving, but yet he’s not completely healed.”
While it's good to see Campbell is hopeful LaPorta will be ready for training camp, he certainly doesn't seem committed to that recovery timeline, which is concerning.
Even if that is the tight end's targeted return date for now, one setback and LaPorta could very well miss the start of the season.
What exactly LaPorta is dealing with remains a mystery. Campbell did mention something on LaPorta's nerve, which is the closest to a diagnosis we've gotten.
“He’s rehabbing every day. Certainly, it feels better after the surgery than he did right before, so that’s a positive," Campbell said. "Took a lot of stress off that nerve, so we’ll see."
LaPorta will be entering a crucial season for his career in 2026, as the veteran tight end will be a free agent after it.
It seemed like a foregone conclusion LaPorta would be one of the next homegrown players the Lions re-sign to a big contract, this back injury complicates things a bit.
Chances are the Lions are going to want to see LaPorta return healthy for most or all of a full season before making a decision on his future.
The Lions will have some work to do at tight end during this coming offseason, as Brock Wright is the only other player under contract at the position on the active roster.
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