Charlie Sanders isn't dead
The Lions' HOF tight end has been reincarnated, of sorts, through Sam LaPorta.
If Charlie Sanders ever caught a pass in stride, I’m not aware of it.
I don’t recall Sanders, the Lions’ Hall of Fame tight end, cutting across the middle of the field and having the football delivered in his bread basket so he could add the oh-so-important YAC (yards after catch).
Mainly because in Charlie’s day, the quarterbacks were not in the upper echelon of the league.
Are you a glass is half full person?
Because the inaccuracy of the Lions QBs showed that Charlie Sanders was, without question, the most acrobatic tight end of his time. Maybe of any time.
I don’t remember any balls caught in stride but I recall plenty caught in traffic—or while Charlie was horizontal to the turf, or leaping, as if grabbing a rebound, which he did as a basketball player in high school.
I remember when Charlie broke the backs of the Oakland Raiders on Thanksgiving Day in 1970, making two ridiculous grabs in the end zone as the Lions overcame a 14-0 deficit to win, 28-14. I remember one year later on Turkey Day against the Chiefs, when Charlie caught a ricocheted football while flat on his back.
Those, I remember.
Charlie played in a different era of football, when the tight ends often blocked more than they ran routes. A good TE caught maybe 30-40 balls a year.
Charlie didn’t bowl over people, like Ditka. He didn’t run sprints, like Mackey.
He also didn’t play for championship teams, like those guys did.
But what Charlie Sanders was, was reliable. Anything thrown in his direction, he caught. Even if he had to sacrifice his body to do it.
I don’t know why the folks who vote on such things were so tardy in electing Charlie to the HOF. His last game was in 1977 yet he wasn’t inducted until 2007, some 30 years later.
Bad clock management by the voters.
The Lions tried David Hill as Charlie’s replacement and while Hill was a fine player, he wasn’t Charlie Sanders.
Because no one was Charlie Sanders.
Not even Sam LaPorta.
But what LaPorta looks to be, is perhaps the best Lions TE since Charlie.
No, I’ve not gotten into the egg nog.
LaPorta, the rookie out of Iowa, has already, in just 14 games, made the Honolulu Blue and Silver faithful forget TJ Hockenson—another Iowa product. And Hockenson is pretty damn good.
LaPorta is 6’3”, 245 pounds and is as athletic as he is big. And he’s as big as he is talented.
He also makes far less money than Hock, and this is really where you need to start, when talking about LaPorta as a Lion.
Last season at the trade deadline, Lions GM Brad Holmes, who really might be the best at his job working for the Detroit football franchise, traded Hock to the Vikings—a division rival, no less. Why? Because Hock was up for a contract extension and Holmes wasn’t sure that investing the dough that Hock’s people wanted, was best for the franchise.
The Lions were 1-5 at the time, but the fan base went into mourning.
The Lions without TJ Hockenson?! Say it ain’t so!
The Lions then went “tight end by committee” and everything worked out fine. The team finished the season 8-2 without Hock and the passing offense didn’t miss a beat.
Yet despite the TE committee, Holmes selected LaPorta in the second round (34th overall).
Holmes was roasted by NFL observers—those whose “mock boards” disagreed with the strategy.
The late Jerry Green, Detroit News sports columnist, used to call the NFL Draft the “biggest game of pin the tail on the donkey” ever played.
Holmes got the tail on the donkey with the LaPorta pick. As he did with the selection of RB Jahmyr Gibbs in the first round.
LaPorta caught three more TD passes in Sunday’s demolition of the Denver Broncos, giving him nine for the season. For the record, Charlie Sanders’s season high for TD catches was six. Again, a different era.
LaPorta doesn’t have to lay out to make catches; his QB, Jared Goff, for all his warts, isn’t wildly inaccurate. But the kid from Iowa just makes plays. He bails the Lions out in third down situations. He rarely drops any passes.
“He’s getting better,” Lions HC Dan Campbell said about LaPorta after Sunday’s win. “Brad took a lot of heat for that pick, but I think (LaPorta) is pretty good. I’m glad we have him.”
Today’s TE isn’t like yesterday’s. In this pass-crazy NFL, the tight end is no longer a block-first, catch-second guy. Today, the TE is often the first read on any given pass play. The league is filled with elite tight ends.
The elite ones are big, athletic and with hands like Velcro. They can go deep. They’re hard to tackle after the catch. They catch 80 balls a year, not 40.
In 14 games this season, LaPorta has 71 catches, about five per game. Thirty-nine of those catches have gone for first downs.
Like Hockenson, who is averaging 9.9 YPC for the Vikings (91 catches), LaPorta’s YPC (10.7) may not look impressive. But those 10.7 yards are usually some of the most important 10.7 yards in the Lions’ offense that week.
How many catches that LaPorta makes, would you consider unimportant? How many aren’t vital?
As for Holmes, letting Hock go so he could chase big money elsewhere wasn’t the first time he pulled that stunt. Remember when Holmes, fresh into town, declined to sign WR Kenny Golladay to a fat extension? Remember when Golladay signed with the Giants instead?
Remember Kenny Golladay, period?
Sam LaPorta, meanwhile, is authoring one of the best rookie seasons by any TE in NFL history.
He’s not Charlie Sanders. No crime in that.
But some day, Sam LaPorta might have more in common with Charlie than they playing the same position.
I swear—no egg nog here.