Seriously, what Lions’ Sam LaPorta is doing isn’t normal

Detroit Lions rookie tight end Sam LaPorta has been playing pretty well in his rookie season. Scrap that. Pretty well would describe something that a human rookie tight end would do. Pretty well is T.J. Hockenson’s 32 receptions for 367 yards and two touchdowns that he had in his entire rookie season. What LaPorta is doing is special. Here’s more examples of why. 

Ok, let’s start with Hockenson. Well, not just Hockenson. Let’s just go crazy and do something like look at the top three rookie tight ends of each of the last 20 seasons.

There’s 60 tight ends in all. The player sin bold are guys that have gone on to be Pro Bowlers.

Ok. Let’s have some fun and do some math shall we? Ok, this is the full season for each of these guys. When you add all this up and average it out, you come up with an average of 32 receptions for 377 yards and three touchdowns. 

After five games, Sam LaPorta is at 25 receptions for 289 yards and three touchdowns. So he’s already just about to hit the average and then pass it. 

There’s some guys on here that had big season for sure. Guys like Kyle Pitts and Evan Engram come to mind. Here’s the thing, LaPorta is already off to a better start than both of those guys and, really, almost any tight end on NFL history. 

For staters, only two other tight ends have been able to rack up 25 or more receptions in their first five games. That’s Keith Jackson in 1988 and Jordan Reed in 2013. Then there’s this.