TE · Detroit · 2026 outlook
Sam LaPorta played nine games in 2025 and caught 40 of 49 targets in them, an 82 percent catch rate that is the highest in this group.
Nine games and an 8.9 percent target share is a thin foundation for a top-ten board rank, and the reason it holds up is what LaPorta did before 2025 rather than during it. When healthy he has been one of the few tight ends with a real role in a good offense, and the 82 percent catch rate here says the efficiency did not go anywhere. What did go was the volume: five and a half targets a game is a supporting share, and in Detroit that is partly because Amon-Ra St. Brown absorbs 31 percent of the throws by himself.
That is the structural issue for 2026 and it is worth naming plainly. LaPorta is competing for targets with one of the highest-volume receivers in football, on a team that also runs well. His path to a top-five tight end finish runs through touchdowns rather than catch volume, and three scores in nine games is an ordinary rate. Detroit's tight end schedule is neutral at 3 out of 5, with an early bye in week 6. He is a reasonable mid-round pick on talent and situation, and a bad one if you are paying for the rookie season he had two years ago.
Detroit funnels a third of its targets to Amon-Ra St. Brown and runs the ball well. That leaves LaPorta a supporting share of a pie that is not especially large to begin with. It is a structural feature of the offense rather than a sign he lost the role.
It confirms the efficiency, which is the less useful half. An 82 percent catch rate on 49 targets says he is still the same player. It says nothing about whether he can stay on the field, which is the actual question.
At the right price, yes, because tight end is shallow enough that a healthy version of him is a starter. Be clear about what you are buying: a talented player in a crowded offense with an injury-shortened year behind him, not the rookie-season production people still anchor to.
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