Brace Yourself! Rams at Detroit Injury Key: Is TE Sam LaPorta Playing?

Brace Yourself! Los Angeles Rams at Detroit Lions Injury Key: Is TE Sam LaPorta Playing?

There is no shortage of weaponry, for both offenses, as the Detroit Lions ready to host the Los Angeles Rams in a Sunday night Wild Card matchup.

But the game could pivot on the availability of one of those weapons.

According to a report from NFL Network, Lions rookie tight end Sam LaPorta is trending toward playing against the Rams despite a nasty knee injury.

“LaPorta, who suffered a bone bruise and hyperextended knee, is trending in the right direction to play vs the Rams,'' Ian Rapoport tweeted on Sunday morning. “Very limited in practice, LaPorta will likely wear a brace. But he intends to be out there with his team.”

For the better part of the week, most have considered LaPorta a long shot to play. But LaPorta, one of QB Jared Goff's favorite and most reliable targets, did did in some post-practice work at one point late in the week, and he evsn advanced to being listed as a "full participant'' during the Friday practice. 

And yes, LaPorta is already on record as saying he will wear a knee brace if he does play on Sunday.

“I‘ll probably play with the knee brace as a precautionary thing, just to make sure that hyperextension doesn’t happen again, in the rare case the cleat gets caught in the turf again and something bad were to happen,” LaPorta said. “I think you would see me with the knee brace out there, but I’m not sure how much it would inhibit me or practically keep it from happening again.”

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The Rams - wishing no ill on anyone - would of course prefer that LaPorta gets rested up ... for long offseason following a Los Angeles upset in the meeting, with kickoff set for primetime on Sunday Night Football at 5:15 pm PT at Ford Field.

But if he's back? He's second on the team in catches (86) and receiving yards (889), he blocks in the running game, and he's a big-play threat. ... in a game that figures to feature a lot of them.