Sam LaPorta injury: Why Detroit Lions aren't optimistic about status for playoff opener

When the Detroit Lions open the playoffs next week, they likely will be without their second-leading receiver and best punt returner.

Lions coach Dan Campbell said the left knee injury tight end Sam LaPorta suffered in Sunday's regular season-ending 30-20 win over the Minnesota Vikings was "not as bad as it looked, but it’s not good news."

"We’ll know more tomorrow," Campbell said. "I know it looked awful. It’s not as bad as that. But it doesn’t mean that it looks good in the immediate here, to have him for a game."

LaPorta was injured with 1:55 left in the first half, when his leg bent awkwardly as he was tackled to the ground by Josh Metellus after a short catch.

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LaPorta, who finished the regular season with 86 catches for 889 yards and 10 touchdowns, limped gingerly to the sideline after the play and underwent further examination under the blue medical tent on the sideline before riding a cart to the locker room.

Punt returner Kalif Raymond also suffered a left knee injury after a 9-yard reception early in the fourth quarter that projects to keep him out of next week's playoff opener. Raymond was playing an expanded role on offense after Lions leading receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown left briefly with a rib injury.

"Leaf’s kind of in that same little world there a little bit," Campbell said.

The Lions (12-5) played most of their starters a full complement of snaps Sunday in an effort to improve their spot in the NFC playoff race.

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They entered the week in control of the No. 3 seed in the NFC, but needed a win over the Vikings and losses by the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles to move up to the No. 2 seed. Both the Cowboys and Eagles were playing in Sunday's late-afternoon window.

Campbell said he had no second thoughts about his decision to play starters Sunday, despite the injuries.

LaPorta scored the game's first touchdown on a 2-yard catch and broke Keith Jackson's 35-year-old NFL record for most catches by a rookie tight end.

"No. I mean, man, you don’t want guys to get hurt," Campbell said. "And I said a prayer last night, I do it every time before these games for our guys. You don’t want anybody getting hurt, especially a game like this, but there again we have two tight ends and we used Skip (offensive tackle Dan Skipper as a third tight end), and so we tried to limit what we could and that happened to be a play it happened.

"It’s a tough deal. It’s tough, and I know this, you’re really kind of either all in or all out and we were going. We needed to do that. And we already have a number of guys on the inactive that are injured, so you can only bring so many guys and play them. But I would say all in all, we got out of it pretty good."

St. Brown said he was "solid" after leaving the game briefly with a rib injury in the third quarter when he said Vikings defensive tackle Harrison Phillips purposely kneed him as he laid on the ground after a catch.

St. Brown left for one play, returned and caught a 70-yard touchdown on the Lions' next drive, then was in and out of the lineup the rest of the game, repeatedly stretching his torso on the sideline.

"I don’t know what he was on, 97," St. Brown said of Phillips. "He laid — did it on purpose. I don’t know what he was doing, but it is what it is, playing football."

Rookie safety Brian Branch also left with a wrist injury Sunday but returned and finished the game.

Campbell said there may come a point in the future where he chooses to rest players at the end of the season rather than play them in a Week 18 game.

"I don’t think there’s any right or wrong answer," he said. "You do the best you can with what you have on the roster and who’s hurt, who’s not, who needs a rest."

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions TE Sam LaPorta's status in doubt for playoff opener