{"id":395209,"date":"2025-11-21T18:41:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/395209\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T18:41:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:41:17","slug":"what-is-sam-laportas-timeline-for-return-to-lions-after-surgery-on-back-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/395209\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Sam LaPorta’s Timeline for Return to Lions After Surgery on Back Injury?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta is unlikely to return this season after undergoing surgery on a back injury, head coach Dan Campbell confirmed<\/a> Friday.<\/p>\n

“I think we would be fortunate to have a chance to get him back for the rest of the season, at some point,” Campbell told reporters. “I think that’s very, very slim.”<\/p>\n

Campbell added that LaPorta’s procedure had gone “really well” in terms of his long-term health.<\/p>\n

LaPorta last played during a Week 10 win at the Washington Commanders on Nov. 9. He placed on injured reserve ahead of the Lions’ Week 11 matchup at the Philadelphia Eagles last Sunday.<\/p>\n

Campbell had sounded much more optimistic about LaPorta’s return timeline when first speaking about his injury following last Sunday’s loss to the Eagles. <\/p>\n

“Obviously we’re going to hope that this thing calms down and after those four games we can get him back,” Campbell said<\/a> Sunday about LaPorta’s injured reserve placement.<\/p>\n

It sounds like the Lions are no longer eyeing Dec. 14, the date of their Week 15 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams and the earliest LaPorta could be activated from injured reserve, as a likely return target for the tight end.<\/p>\n

The question will now become whether LaPorta would be available to return in the postseason, although it’s currently up in the air whether the Lions will earn a playoff spot for a third consecutive season.<\/p>\n

Were the regular season to end today, the Lions (6-4) would not be in the playoff picture<\/a> thanks to the Chicago Bears (7-3) and the Green Bay Packers (6-3-1) holding on to the top of the NFC North.<\/p>\n

NFL Next Gen Stats<\/a> projects that the Lions currently have a 74 percent shot at making the playoffs, and that those odds will drop to 55 percent if Detroit loses to the New York Giants in Week 12.<\/p>\n

At the time of his injury, LaPorta ranked second on the Lions with 40 catches and 489 receiving yards in nine games.<\/p>\n

His injury left the Lions with Brock Wright as the main alternate option at tight end. Wright received a season-high seven targets during last Sunday’s loss in Philadelphia, although he caught just two of them for a total of eight yards as the Lions went 0-for-5 on fourth downs.<\/p>\n

The Lions also have Ross Dwelley, who was promoted to the active roster in September but has yet to make a catch this season, on the tight end depth chart. The team could additionally elevate Anthony Firsker, who was signed<\/a> to the practice squad last week.<\/p>\n

Campbell said<\/a> ahead of the Eagles matchup that his faith in Wright, who he described as a “jack of all trades,” was “sky high.” The head coach could dole out more snaps to both Wright and wide receiver Kalif Raymond in order to cover for LaPorta’s absence as the Lions look to stay in the playoff hunt with a Sunday win over the visiting Giants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta is unlikely to return this season after undergoing surgery on a back…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":395210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-395209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115589158324560659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}