Sam LaPorta is coming off a fantastic outing in Detroit’s Week 13 win in New Orleans. The second-round rookie tight end caught all nine of his passing game targets, netting 140 yards and a touchdown.
For his outstanding game, LaPorta won the Pepsi Zero Sugar Rookie of the Week for Week 13. The award doesn’t differentiate between offense and defense. He edged out Will Anderson, C.J. Stroud, De’von Achane, Puka Nacua and Zach Charbonnett to win.
Head coach Dan Campbell, a longtime NFL tight end himself, had this to say about LaPorta during the week,
“It’s not easy to play this position as a rookie and to do all that we’re asking him to do because he does it all. It’s in the run game, it’s protection and then you see the pass production. That’s what everybody sees, right? The numbers, the separation, but nobody has really any true idea of all the other stuff he does for us and that’s a tight end. That’s what a tight end does and I’m glad he’s ours.”
LaPorta is the first Lions rookie to capture the weekly honor in 2023, though Jahmyr Gibbs and Brian Branch were previously nominated. James Houston was the last Lions rookie to win it, back in Week 17 a year ago.