Sam LaPorta Trending Toward Training Camp Return After Back Surgery
Sam LaPorta is getting healthy at the right time, and the fantasy case for buying his discount comes down to two questions: whether his back holds up, and whether Detroit’s new offense funnels the ball back to its tight end.
The health news is encouraging. LaPorta was a partial participant on the first day of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, and head coach Dan Campbell said he could be cleared by the start of training camp in late July. “We like where he’s going,” Campbell said. “He’s trending the right way.” LaPorta has been limited to light jogging and walkthrough work all spring after surgery in November to repair a herniated disc, the injury that ended his 2025 season after just nine games. He has not done full-speed teamwork yet, but the timeline points to him being at full speed when camp opens next month.
The injury is the whole reason his price has dropped. LaPorta entered the league as the most valuable fantasy tight end in football, setting a rookie record with 86 catches and adding 889 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has not matched that since, slipping to a 60-726-7 line and then to 40 catches for 489 yards and three scores in his injury-shortened 2025. Back surgery is not something fantasy managers shrug off, and LaPorta did not downplay it. “Backs aren’t anything to mess with, and I want a long, healthy career,” he said in January, explaining why he chose the procedure. “So it was the best route.”
Here is where the real bounce-back argument lives, and it is not the one usually cited. Detroit’s offense has not stood still since LaPorta’s rookie year; it has had its coordinator turnover twice. Ben Johnson, who built that record rookie season, left to coach the Bears. His replacement lasted one season. The man now running the offense is Drew Petzing, hired from Arizona in January. That matters because Petzing just oversaw the best fantasy tight end season in the sport: Trey McBride caught a record 126 passes for 1,239 yards under him in 2025 and earned first-team All-Pro honors. A play-caller who just made a tight end the centerpiece of his passing game is exactly the fit that can restore LaPorta’s volume.
The supporting cast helps the case rather than hurting it. Jared Goff remains, and LaPorta has long been one of his most trusted targets. Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams stretch defenses on the outside, and Jahmyr Gibbs is a matchup problem out of the backfield. All that talent means LaPorta was never going to be force-fed targets, but in a scheme that prizes the tight end, the middle of the field should open up for him.
There is a credible bear case, and it deserves a hearing. Some analysts now see LaPorta as more of a bust than a bargain. SI’s Michael Fabiano placed him atop his list of tight end bust candidates, noting that LaPorta has rarely looked like his rookie self since losing Ben Johnson and that he was inconsistent even in the nine games he played last year. A back surgery, a new system to learn, and two down seasons in a row are real reasons for caution. The position’s lack of depth keeps him in the top-10 conversation almost by default, which is not the same as betting on a return to elite production.
For redraft purposes, that tension is the opportunity. LaPorta is going off the board around the TE9 range, a price that reflects the injury and the slide rather than his ceiling. If the back is sound and Petzing uses him the way he used McBride, that cost will look like a steal. He is a buy as a value-tier TE1 with genuine top-five upside, just go in knowing the upside is contingent on health.