Buy or Sell: The Biggest Standouts From Week 1 of Training Camp

The NFL news cycle is year-round at this point, but the beginning of training camp is when things really start to pick up after a lazy first month of summer. Late July is a yearly reminder that every player is in the best shape of their life, but some players stand out more than others. Sometimes, these hype trains pan out during the regular season — seventh-round rookie Isiah Pacheco stood out at Chiefs camp last year and obviously ended the season as a valuable fantasy asset. Others, like 2019 sixth-round pick Darwin Thompson, don’t catch on when Week 1 rolls around.

This is a tricky time for fantasy players, as we have to parse through what matters and what doesn’t as the market reacts to news. Pacheco went from undrafted at some points in the offseason last season to a 13th-round pick in September. Thompson rose even higher in 2019, going as early as the eighth or ninth round in late high-stakes drafts.

We don’t have a magic ball, but we’re keeping a close eye on all the hype trains around the league and sometimes adjusting our projections. Today, I’ll dig into the biggest standouts and stories from training camp so far and discuss how I’m treating them for fantasy.

SAM LAPORTA

The Athletic’s Colton Pouncy reported that LaPorta “looks like TE1” on the very first day of Lions camp, and the buzz about the rookie tight end hasn’t slowed down since then. LaPorta is getting the majority of snaps with the starters and also mixing in with the second and third teams just to get more reps. Lions OC Ben Johnson said the Iowa product has “earned the right” to be working with the starters:

“Yeah, I think as a coaching staff, we’re very much, ‘You need to earn your stripes.’ And so you saw in the springtime, he got minimal work with the first team and he’s earned the right now to be in that first-team huddle with Jared [Goff] and that offensive line.”

Shane Zylstra suffered a serious knee injury on July 31 and is expected to miss six months, leaving Brock Wright and James Mitchell as the two tight ends behind LaPorta. Wright managed just 24 targets in 2022 despite being the TE1 after T.J. Hockenson was traded, while Mitchell is a former fifth-round pick who saw just 11 looks as a rookie. Even if he wasn’t getting training-camp hype, it would be reasonable to assume LaPorta immediately ascends the depth chart. The constant drumbeat out of camp simply confirms that Detroit isn’t going to take it slow with their young tight end.

As a prospect, LaPorta posted two consecutive seasons with at least a 27% market share of receiving yards at Iowa (including 35% as a senior) and burst onto the scene with a 16% figure in his freshman campaign. The Hawkeye passing game was abysmal (as always) during his time in Iowa City, but LaPorta’s market share numbers were relatively strong. He performed well at the NFL Combine with a 4.59-second 40-yard dash at 245 pounds and strong explosion numbers. While he wasn’t as highly regarded by many pundits as Dalton Kincaid or Michael Mayer, his athletic testing and college production combined with early second-round draft capital bodes well for his career outlook.

The only argument against LaPorta is how ineffective rookie tight ends usually are, and that’s especially true for TEs taken outside Round 1 of the NFL Draft. Since the turn of the century, Pat Freiermuth has the most targets in a rookie season by a non-Day 1 tight end with 79. That number would have ranked 12th at the position in 2022. Tight ends famously have a steep learning curve when transitioning from college to the pros, and drafting LaPorta is gambling that his target ceiling exceeds what players in this cohort have done in the past. With that being said, the overwhelming majority of rookie TEs drafted outside Round 1 have not been Week 1 starters, which LaPorta looks like he will be.

The LaPorta buzz is getting louder by the day, and we’ve bumped him noticeably in our rankings since the start of training camp. His ADP could get out of control in the coming weeks and the subpar history of Day 2 rookie TEs is worth considering, but LaPorta’s price is currently reasonable for his prospect profile and projected role in a good offense. The issue is that his ADP will likely continue to rise as the market updates to the steady stream of hype.

Verdict: Buying that he’s Detroit’s TE1 but selling at cost if he keeps rising

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