Detroit Lions' Sam LaPorta near rookie TE record: 'Feels like your hard work is paying off'

Numbers have never meant much to Sam LaPorta, and they still don't even though he's on the verge of accomplishing something no rookie tight end has since he was a toddler.

LaPorta needs four catches when the Detroit Lions host the Denver Broncos on Saturday to become the third rookie tight end in NFL history with 70 receptions in a season.

Jeremy Shockey was the last tight end to accomplish the feat in 2002, when he caught 74 passes for 894 yards in 15 games and LaPorta was closing in on his second birthday.

Keith Jackson holds the rookie record for catches by a tight end (81), and both that and the yardage mark — Mike Ditka's 1,076 yards, set in 1961 — are within LaPorta's reach with a strong final four games.

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"I mean, to put your name in conversation with other great players and hopefully you stay on that track for a decade plus, it feels good," LaPorta told the Free Press this week. "It feels like your hard work is paying off, so just going to try to keep doing what I'm doing."

A second-round pick out of Iowa, LaPorta is second on the Lions with 66 catches and 702 yards receiving through 13 games.

He said he had no statistical goals entering the season, and was more focused on earning his keep at one of the hardest positions for a rookie to make an impact at in the NFL.

"My hopes and my expectations were just to play a lot, to play a lot of snaps, to make the coaches not want to take me off the field because I’m doing a lot of good things," he said. "So hopefully they trust me and they have the confidence in me to do those things and they keep me out there a lot."

LaPorta has earned his coaches' trust with an advanced grasp of some of the finer points of the position.

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He's an astute route runner who has a knack for getting separation at the top of his break. He uses his hands well as a run blocker, and has done so while learning a new run blocking scheme (gap). And he has become one of quarterback Jared Goff's must trusted security blankets in got-to-have it situations with 34 catches for first downs.

"You’d like to stay ahead of the curve with some things," LaPorta said. "I hear the coaches talk about like, 'Man, I see guys that are in their third or fourth year that struggle with that, and it seems like you’re starting to develop those things within the first couple months of you being here.' So continue to work hard at those things, so I think a multitude of those little things like the releases, the top of routes, the subtleties of the game are something that I’m probably most proud of that I’m starting to develop now and I’m starting to see actually take place out on the field."

LaPorta needs to average four catches and 93.5 yards receiving over the final four games to set new rookie records in both categories.

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He said he's more concerned with helping the Lions maximize their playoff potential than collecting stats, and no matter what happens down the stretch he knows his success this year is no guarantee he'll do it again.

Neither Shockey nor Jackson ever had more catches in a season than he did as a rookie, and Ditka and Kyle Pitts, the only rookie tight ends to top 1,000 yards, never hit that mark again.

"The NFL is an extremely competitive league," LaPorta said. "Just cause you do one thing one year doesn’t mean you can do things the next year, or one week to the next week. So it’s an ongoing process and you just got to keep doing your best and the outcome may not always go your way but you got to keep putting in work."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' Sam LaPorta approaching impressive rookie TE record