Is Sam LaPorta flying below the fantasy radar?
Yahoo Fantasy's Matt Harmon, Josh Norris and Hayden Winks discuss LaPorta's fantasy outlook at current ADP as a top-8 tight end. Check out the full conversation on the "Yahoo Fantasy Forecast" podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Let's talk Sam LaPorta.
I don't think Sam LaPorta's gotten any attention from anyone this off-season, and I wanna change that.
All right?
He's going as tight end eight, around 77, 78 overall.
I have him as the tight end six.
So, when you look at the three quarterbacks who have targeted the tight ends at the highest rate over the last three seasons, so 2023 through 2025, two played for Drew Petzing, one played for Kevin Stefanski.
So that's Jacoby Brisset at 34%, Kyler at 34%, and Shador Sanders at 32%.
So, yes, one interpretation of that is, well, those first two guys threw to Trey McBride, he's pretty freaking good.
And then the last one, Shador could only throw to Harold Fanton, and that was the entire offense.
I'll come at it from a different angle.
I'll say it's a foundation of the tree of where this offense comes from.
Norv Turner, Kevin Stefanski, Drew Petzing.
That the tight end is the primary read on a number of concepts.
You can go back to 2023 and David Njoku nearly led the Browns in targets that year.
So, we have already have a season under our belt where Sam LaPorta finishes the tight end one points per game, albeit a down season for tight ends that year.
But this is another case, Matt, where we already have a ton of veterans on this roster, and we have a new play caller coming in, after a failed one last year.
And who's gonna benefit the most from it in an offense that's probably gonna score a bunch of points?
To me, that's Sam LaPorta of this group, other than, you know, the obvious Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs of where they're being drafted.
I like when these players are being drafted kind of where their baseline is, and then if something happens to one of the top guys, they absolutely go crazy.
Like, if something happened to Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta would be very much a top three-ish fantasy tight end, so I, I- And JMo.
Also JMo too, Hayden.
I think, of course.
Because I, I think there's, like, some on and off splits of when JMo doesn't have a good game- Oh, yeah.
Yeah that means Sam LaPorta has a good game.
Yeah.
I really like him in best ball, where you don't have to predict when he's gonna have his, his touchdowns and when they're falling behind in the scoreboard.
I also want, wanna mention, the defense is, like, still very much up in the air in Detroit.
Their secondary is just They cannot dodge injuries and jail time on that side of the ball, so this is gonna be a shootout team.
The entire division is completely stacked here.
So I think taking your chances on Sam LaPorta is interesting.
I did wanna make one kind of note, just big picture.
There's, like, 10, tight ends on Yahoo whose have ADPs inside the top 100.
Just in general, the tight ends go way earlier on Yahoo than anywhere else.
And- I'm trying to figure out exactly what that means.
I think I'm kind of translating that as, like, let's just get Brock Bowers on the team then.
If, like, we're drafting Tyler Warren the fourth round- Fair and Sam LaPorta's going in the fifth round, like, let's just pay the premium on Brock Bowers, in the second round and break ties that way.
But it is just interesting, and we'll get to my guy next.
Like, they're, like, all being drafted in the 50s and 60s, and then everywhere else they're being drafted closer to 80s to 115 overall.
So just a, a kind of, trend across Yahoo in general.
