With the Detroit Lions taking on the New York Giants this Sunday, the team gets bad news on the injury front regarding tight end Sam LaPorta. As the Lions star was put on injured reserve with a back injury, head coach Dan Campbell would drop the news that he is likely not to return this season.
Reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN, LaPorta “underwent a back procedure,” leading to Campbell saying that the 24-year-old's 2025 campaign has probably come to a close.
“Lions HC Dan Campbell told reporters that TE Sam LaPorta underwent a back procedure and is now unlikely to return this season,” Schefter wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
There's no denying how much of a surprise this probably comes to Detroit, especially when Campbell spoke Monday about how the team doesn't know any timeline, saying at the time that he's “hopeful,” but they're raking it “day-by-day.”
“We are talking about four weeks here,” Campbell said, according to The Athletic. “So, obviously, we’re going to hope that this thing calms down, and after those four games, we can get him back. But we’re really just taking this day-by-day, week-by-week. I’m hopeful, but I really don’t know.”
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While the Lions are trying to win the NFC North, LaPorta's absence will be a crucial absence for the team, though there's no doubt that Campbell is confident in tight end Brock Wright. He would go as far as to call Wright a “jack of all trades.”
“Brock’s a guy we don’t talk a lot about, but he’s the jack of all trades,” Campbell said. “He does everything for us — pass protect, run block, he can run some routes, he plays special teams. He’s one of the most dependable players we have on this team. And at the end of the day, what you really need in the tight end position is versatility and smarts, and he’s got both of those — and he’s tough.”
Detroit is currently 6-4, putting them third in the division, looking to make some ground on Sunday against the Giants.
