When tight end Sam LaPorta emerged from Week 10 with a back injury, ended up on IR and did not play the rest of the season, the Detroit Lions' offense functioned differently without a big reliable target in the middle of the field.
In the nine games with LaPorta on the field this season, the Lions averaged 31.4 points per game. In the eight games without him, they averaged 24.8 points per game. That's the difference between what would've been the top scoring offense in the NFL and the 12th-best.
LaPorta never seemed close to a return to action this season, and he detailed the extent of his back injury when the Lions departed Allen Park for the offseason.
"It actually occurred in the Commanders game (Week 10),” LaPorta said. “There were some accumulated falls and hits that I took in the weeks leading up to that game, and then of course, it happened in the Commanders game. I fully herniated the disc.”
LaPorta also noted the delicate nature of back injuries as he headed toward the next step in his rehab process after surgery. The current plan is for him to be ready for training camp, and with that in mind his status for Week 1 next season doesn't seem to be in serious doubt.
But, if there's any doubt about LaPorta's readiness for camp or the start of next season the Lions may want to have a better contingency plan than, no offense to those guys, Brock Wright, Anthony Firkser, etc.
Reunion proposal would give Sam LaPorta ample recovery time
With that better contingency plan for any uncertainty around LaPorta in mind, Mike Payton of AtoZ Sports offered up an idea Lions fans may be conflicted about.
"The Lions should reunite with T.J. Hockenson in 2026"
Payton noted how the Minnesota Vikings are in line to cut Hockenson. But they would presumably trade him if they could, just to recoup some sort of value.
Lions' fans also remember a certain version of Hockenson from his three-plus seasons on the team. But since his major knee injury late in the 2023 season he has not been that guy, and he'll turn 29 in July. The Vikings' quarterback and offensive line situations, the latter of which turned him into a pass blocker like he had never been before, also did him no favors this season.
Payton outlined how a reunion could be a nice fit.
"What Hockenson can bring at this juncture is a pretty good pass-blocking tight end who has the ability to be another target in the pass game. A target that we already know Jared Goff trusts. In fact, he might have trusted him too much in 2021. It was like a security blanket that year. Having built in trust goes a long way. We saw what that looked like when Josh Reynolds got here. Goff and Reynolds just got right back to work like they never stopped playing with each other."
"Then, when LaPorta gets back, the Lions suddenly have the two-tight-end sets that have worked so well for the Ravens with Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely or the Bears with Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet. The playbook opens up, and there’s a new page in there that wasn’t there before. If you’re Goff, you’re putting the ball basically wherever you want."
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For a big chunk of the 2021 season, Hockenson was the only consistently reliable target in the Lions' passing game. Amon-Ra St. Brown did not become the version of himself we now know until the final six games. So the idea Jared Goff trusted his No. 1 tight end too much that season is overblown, and as Payton wrote the two would likely not take very long to get their chemistry back.
Of course any idea of a trade has to consider Hockenson's contract. He has two years left on the four-year, $66 million extension the Vikings gave him, but it's really only a firm commitment for one more. A team that traded him for him would take on a $16 million cap hit for 2026, with $2.3 million of his base salary becoming fully guaranteed on the third day of the league year.
In terms of trade compensation the Lions would have to send to the Vikings for Hockenson, a Day 3 draft pick would probably get it done if Minnesota's only alternative is to cut him. Or maybe they just wait until he is cut to bring him back.
A couple things are undeniably true here.
The current, however diminished, version of Hockenson is better than any tight end the Lions put out there in LaPorta's absence to end this season.
And with the trend toward having multiple highly-capable tight ends on the field at the same time, Hockenson can give the Lions a viable duo a lot of teams would love to have whenever LaPorta is ready to go.