Analyze Sam Laporta's matchup for week 10
LaPorta has scored in three of his last four games and draws a Washington defense that has surrendered the fifth-most TE touchdowns this year, making him a locked-in TE1 with overall-top spot upside.
The Lions travel to Washington as 3.5-point road favorites in a 51.5-point total game, setting up a pass-friendly script for Jared Goff and crew. The Commanders’ defense has been boom-or-bust against tight ends—fewest catches allowed but fifth-most touchdowns—creating a perfect runway for LaPorta’s red-zone usage and vertical threat.
After a quiet September, LaPorta has ripped off 5-plus catches in four straight, posting 97 yards and a career-long 40-yard score last week and cementing himself as Detroit’s clear No. 2 target.
LaPorta’s second-year breakout is arriving on schedule. The athletic 6-3, 245-pounder has always run like a wideout, but Detroit’s early-season offensive reshuffling and heavier personnel usage kept his volume modest through Week 5. Since the bye, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has made a concerted effort to feature LaPorta as a movable chess piece: flexed out to create size mismatches on slot corners, attached in bunch sets to rub linebackers off routes, and deployed as the primary read in condensed red-zone formations. The dividends are obvious—three touchdowns in four games and a 78% catch rate on targets inside the 20. Sunday’s matchup with Washington is the perfect confluence of talent and opportunity. The Commanders play predominantly single-high coverage and blitz at a top-10 rate, leaving safeties in conflict between bracketing Amon-Ra St. Brown and staying shallow to defend crossers and Texas routes from tight ends. When they do carry LaPorta vertically, linebacker Cole Holcomb has been exploited for a 131.4 passer rating allowed this season, and rookie safety Percy Butler has already yielded four scores in coverage. Detroit’s implied team total north of 27 points portends multiple red-zone trips, and LaPorta has handled 62% of the team’s TE targets inside the 20 since Week 6. Expect six-plus receptions, 70-90 yards, and at least one touchdown, with the ceiling for a 20-point fantasy day that could finish the week as the position’s top scorer.