Sam LaPorta doesn’t sound like a player expecting a new deal from the Detroit Lions anytime soon. Asked about his contract on Barstool’s “Pardon My Take,” the tight end said the team is “not showing the love” and that he’d be fine playing somewhere else in 2027, per ESPN.
“I’m going to continue to do my thing and ball out, and in three months, if I don’t get to wear the Honolulu blue and play for the Lions anymore, it’s going to be all good,” LaPorta said. “I’ll go get paid somewhere else. So whatever.” That’s a sharper tone than he took after practice in Allen Park on Oct. 7, days after an eight-catch, 84-yard game that sent his stock up in a loss to Carolina.
How the LaPorta talks got stuck
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Oct. 4 that the sides had broken off contract talks. LaPorta called it a “stalemate” three days later and said he’d handed the negotiations to agent Jack Bechta, who also landed Tucker Kraft a four-year, $75 million deal with Green Bay before the season, per ESPN’s Eric Woodyard. General manager Brad Holmes said in September that the plan to extend LaPorta and Brian Branch hadn’t changed.
Last season sits underneath all of it. LaPorta had surgery in November to repair a fully herniated disk and missed the final eight games of 2025. “Like last year, whatever it was, Week 9, Week 10, I break my f—ing back for the team. And then I’m going out there this year and I’m balling, and maybe they’re just not showing the love,” he said.
He has backed up the balling part. LaPorta has 27 catches for 316 yards and three touchdowns in five games, and his 82.0 receiving grade through four games trailed only Jahmyr Gibbs among Lions pass catchers, according to PFF. He added an 81.9 receiving grade in the 45-21 win over Arizona before the bye. With Tom Kennedy lost for the season, and with Jared Goff playing at an elite level, Detroit doesn’t have a pass catcher to spare.
Detroit has been down this road at tight end. The Lions traded T.J. Hockenson to Minnesota in 2022, and the Vikings later made him the highest-paid tight end in the league. Because LaPorta is a 2023 second-round pick finishing his rookie deal, Holmes still has the franchise tag as a fallback. Using it keeps LaPorta in Detroit for 2027 and pushes this fight into another offseason.
