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One of the focal points in the recent Lions OTAs and minicamp was how Detroit is using second-round tight end Sam LaPorta. Without giving up too much confidential information, we saw LaPorta getting ample work aligning in the slot.
That’s not something we saw a lot of from the Lions offense in 2022. Detroit had a tight end aligned in the slot just 22.8 percent of the time last season. Over half of those total slot snaps belonged to T.J. Hockenson in the team’s first seven games, too. Hockenson aligned in the slot just over 30 percent of the time in his seven games with Detroit in 2022.
Of course, Hockenson was traded to the Minnesota Vikings after Detroit’s Week 8 loss to Miami. With his departure came the effective end of any slot usage for the remaining tight ends. The tight end splits for the Lions post-Hockenson (Weeks 9-18) out of the slot:
| Snaps | Routes | Targets | Catches | Yards | |
| S. Zylstra | 73 | 62 | 5 | 4 | 29 |
| B. Wright | 35 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Mitchell | 18 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 22 |
That’s using a slot TE on 16 percent of the total offensive snaps over that time period. Quarterback Jared Goff targeted them with under 3 percent of his pass attempts. Interestingly, seven of the nine targets here came in the red zone.
Adding LaPorta into the mix opens up the potential for offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to more effectively, frequently and successfully use the flexed-out tight end as a matchup weapon. In his final season at Iowa, LaPorta played out of the slot on over 40 percent of his offensive snaps.
LaPorta’s presence gives the offense more punch in bunch formations or dual-slot alignments with WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, who is one of the best slots in the league. It’s clearly a dimension to the offense that the Lions wanted to bring back after using it so sparingly in the second half of 2022.
All usage data is from SIS via The 33rd Team.