The good: Third-year tight end Sam LaPorta was on pace for a career year for receiving yards before a back injury suffered Week 10 in Washington required surgery and ended his season.

LaPorta had 40 receptions, 489 receiving yards and three touchdowns in nine games. His 82.0 overall grade by Pro Football Focus was the best of his career and he was also making real strides as a run blocker with the best blocking grade (64.9) of his career.

LaPorta said after the season he expects to be ready to go by the start of training camp, which is good news for the Lions and new offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, who has a history of heavy utilization of the tight end position.

Petzing is coming over from Arizona where he ran the Cardinals' offense. They were one of only three teams this season to use three-plus tight ends on over 100 offensive snaps (107). Buffalo (117) and the Los Angeles Rams (194) were the other two. The Cardinals used one tight end the fewest snaps in the league last season.

Detroit's offense was already using a high level of 12 personnel – eighth most in the NFL – so it would make sense for the Lions to continue to lean on heavy tight end personnel sets under Petzing.

The bad: Injuries. Like the safety position on defense, Detroit's tight end room was decimated by injury the second half of the season. After losing LaPorta Week 10, Brock Wright suffered an injury to his trachea Week 12 against the Giants and was placed on injured reserve. He finished the season with 14 receptions for 108 yards and two touchdowns.

After LaPorta and Wright went down, the Lions got little receiving production from the position the rest of the way. Anthony Firkser, Shane Zylstra, Ross Dwelley and Giovanni Ricci combined for 13 receptions, 80 yards and no touchdowns.

Key stat: After recording just 235 receiving yards in his first season before Petzing arrived in Arizona as the offensive coordinator, tight end Trey McBride averaged 106 receptions for 1,070 yards and five touchdowns over the past three seasons in Arizona.

Free agents: Firkser (unrestricted), Zylstra (unrestricted)

LaPorta and Wright are both under contract through the 2026 season. It's time to start considering a contract extension for LaPorta, a second-round pick in 2023, but Lions general manager Brad Holmes may opt to wait and see how LaPorta recovers from back surgery.

"I do think that the priorities for those players have not changed, but obviously more medical information has to be gathered," Holmes said after the season when asked about LaPorta and safety Brian Branch entering the last year of their rookie contracts in 2026. "But we know who they are, we know what kind of players they are.

"But in terms of them suffering some season-ending injuries and the decisions that we've got to make off of that, there's just a lot more information that we're going to need to get which we will get. That's not going to be forgotten about. So, it's a little bit too early to say that because of those injuries happening that that's freed up to get other guys."

Regardless, the Lions should be focused on adding more talent to the group this offseason and it's a great group of veteran tight ends scheduled to hit the free agent market that includes Kyle Pitts (Atlanta), Dallas Goedert (Philadelphia), Travis Kelce (Kansas City), Isaiah Likely (Baltimore), David Njoku (Cleveland), Chigoziem Okonkwo (Tennessee), Darren Waller (Miami), Charlie Kolar (Baltimore), Austin Hooper (New England) and Cade Otton (Tampa Bay).

Draft: With the addition of Petzing and the expectation for the tight end position to become a bigger part of this offense, the Lions could certainly look to bolster their numbers at the position with a draft pick to add to the mix and develop.

Names to consider in this year's draft include Kenyon Sadiq (Oregon), Eli Stowers (Vanderbilt), Joe Royer (Cincinnati), Max Klare (Ohio State), Jack Endries (Texas) and Dallen Bentley (Utah).

Quotable: "It was really unfortunate," LaPorta said after the season of his back injury. "I was trying to look at the best possible outlook, and I was hoping to get back in that two-to-three-week range. In the days following the Commanders game, I was just in a lot of pain. I was walking around like an 80-year-old man, and it just wasn't getting any better. I felt like surgery was the best route and the team felt that way as well. Backs aren't anything to mess with and I want a long healthy career. So, it was the best route."