Jack Campbell relates to Sam LaPorta: "There's some truth in both sides"

Jack Campbell saw Sam LaPorta in the Lions' facility Thursday morning and "talked to him like any normal day, like, 'What’s up, dude? How’s your wife doing?'"

"No one cares," said Campbell. "No one’s like, 'Bro, how could you say that??'"

LaPorta made headlines across the NFL on Wednesday, and maybe some enemies around Detroit, when he told the Pardon My Take podcast amid a contract stalemate with the Lions, "It’s disappointing that you go out there every week and you bear the risk of getting hurt, like last year, I break my f**king back for the team, and then I’m going out there this year and I’m ballin' and maybe they’re just not showing the love."

"I’m going to continue to go do my thing and ball out," LaPorta added, "and in three months if I don’t get to wear the Honolulu blue and play for the Lions anymore, it’s going to be all good. I’ll go get paid somewhere else. So, whatever."

It was the most freely and most flippantly LaPorta has ever spoken, publicly, in his four seasons in Detroit. It felt out of character for a typically understated guy, at least in his interactions with the media. It rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way. It may have irritated the Lions' front office, not that it will have a real impact on negotiations.

It won't become any sort of distraction with his teammates.

"I don’t want to overstep my boundaries," Campbell said Thursday. "But I know Sam’s a hell of a player, and the front office does a hell of a job, so I think it will work itself out. But it’s not, like, lingering in the locker room or anything. Everyone knows, it’s a business."

Campbell knows LaPorta as well as anyone in the locker room. They've been teammates for the past eight seasons, going back to their days at Iowa. They arrived in Detroit in the same 2023 draft class, which has a chance -- if it stays together -- to go down as the best in franchise history. (The 2021 class will have a say as well.)

But that "if" feels heavier than ever.

Brad Holmes and the Lions have long maintained they intend to extend the four core players of that class. Campbell and Jahmyr Gibbs, the two first-rounders, got their extensions this offseason. Gibbs' deal reset the running backs market at $22.5 million per year. Campbell's came in at $20.25 million per year, just shy of Fred Warner's $21 million at the top of the linebackers market.

LaPorta and Brian Branch remain unsigned. Both are coming off major injuries, but LaPorta has proven through five games that he's the same player after suffering a herniated spinal disc last November that required season-ending surgery. If the Lions were waiting for confirmation that he's healthy before committing to him long-term, LaPorta is likely wondering what more they need to see. Branch will return to the field this Sunday after tearing his Achilles last December.

"I try to remind myself, it’s a good problem to have, but it’s not my problem," said Campbell. "Brad does such a good job. So now it’s up to him to figure out how they can — but nowadays I feel like you can do so much stuff (with the cap). I’m not a business guy or know much about the cap and all that, but I feel like you can figure out how to restructure things and move this and that and make it not count against the cap as much ... But they do have some unique decisions to make, because I’m like, we’re gonna have to figure what to do with BB, too."

Based on his numbers, the market for tight ends and the NFL's steadily rising salary cap, LaPorta has a strong case to make $20 million per year. And he's right: if he doesn't get it from the Lions, he'll get it from someone. The Lions can prevent him from hitting the open market for at least another year by slapping the franchise tag on him this offseason, valued at about $17 million in 2027.

That would only irk LaPorta further, but at least it would ensure that he's here for another season as the Lions chase a Super Bowl. And maybe the increasing likelihood of that fueled the frustration that LaPorta aired on Pardon My Take. It's also worth considering the setting of his comments. LaPorta was speaking as a dude to a couple other dudes, his guard down. Now he's dealing with the blowback.

"At the end of the day, that’s just his feelings. He’s on a podcast, he’s just sharing how he feels," Campbell said. "I don’t think it should be taken as deep as it is. There’s some truth in both sides. If s**t doesn’t work out, he’s gonna go get paid somewhere. It’s inevitable, it’s just, who is it? Obviously, selfishly, I hope it’s here. But it’ll all work itself out. But I know it’s probably hard on both sides. Personally knowing Sam and his family, this s**t does weigh on you sometimes."

Campbell's negotiation with the Lions was a relative breeze. They declined his fifth-year option last spring to avoid paying him like a defensive end in 2027, explained to him why, ensured him they would get something done, and then they did. It did help the cause, though, that Campbell accepted less than he would have commanded on the open market.

Had he gone to free agency next offseason as one of the best linebackers in the game at the age of 26, Campbell would have reset the market for linebackers. He probably could have reeled in $22 million per year.

"Brad let me know everything before it all came out," Campbell said. He told me, 'Hey, this is what we’re doing, this is why, we want to reach something with you, it might take some time, but we’ll figure it out.' And for me, I was like, I'm open. I want to stay in Detroit, I want to be here, I love the culture, I love the team, I love Dan (Campbell), I can go down the list. And once you get into it, it is hard because you want to do right by the team, but you also want to do right by yourself. You know how much you put into it. And it’s a hard teeter-totter. There's just a fine line of trying to help, because I know what’s coming with how many good players we have here, but at the same time trying to honestly help my family, too."

LaPorta's stance isn't as clear. But he did say earlier this month that he's "never hung my hat on, like, being the highest-paid tight end, being the first tight end to get drafted in my class, making the Pro Bowl, being first-team All-Pro. I've always put all my chips in the pile of, 'What can I do for the team?' Those chips are still all there."

"Like I said, I'm letting my agent and the front office handle the financial side of things. When I feel like we're a go, you guys will know and I'm sure the news will break and everyone will shoot confetti in the air, it'll be the whole thing," LaPorta said.

That was two weeks ago. LaPorta was coming off his best game of the season, eight catches for 84 yards and a touchdown in the Lions' loss to the Panthers. He was even better the next Sunday in their win over the Cardinals, sparking the offense with three big plays in the second quarter and finishing with 88 yards and a touchdown. He's on pace for 90-plus catches and 1,000-plus yards for the first time in his already decorated career.

His value to the Lions was painfully clear when the offense sputtered without him down the stretch last season, and clearer still now that he's back. The Lions are tied with the Bills for the top-scoring offense in the NFL.

"It's the versatility piece," offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said Thursday. "When you have a player that can do a lot of things at a high level, it becomes very difficult to defend. He's dynamic in the run game. He can block in pass pro. He can separate against linebackers and safeties. He can be a mismatch in the red zone. He can go make contested catches. He can run away from people with the ball in his hand. When you have someone that does so many of those things well, what are you taking away? How are you doing it? Who are you doing it with? I think it puts a lot of stress on the other side of the ball."

On Sunday, LaPorta will share the field with Packers tight end and fellow 2023 draft pick Tucker Kraft. Kraft signed a four-year, $75 million extension with Green Bay in September, worth $18.75 million per year. In one fewer game than Kraft, LaPorta has 75 more catches, 620 more yards and seven more touchdowns.

The guarantees in Kraft's deal are pretty low -- just $26.5 million -- likely because he signed it coming off a torn ACL that limited him to eight games last season. That was the apparent exchange Kraft made for a bigger overall figure. And maybe that's a sticking point in negotiations between LaPorta and the Lions. But with each productive game he puts up, LaPorta gains more leverage.

He made a point to tell reporters in his scrum a couple weeks ago, "The body feels great, it's held up great. The back is great. I took scans, MRIs before the season, sent them to Dr. Watkins, who did my surgery. He responded and said everything looks fantastic and I should have a long, healthy career to follow."

If LaPorta was ever open to signing for a slight discount, in either guarantees or overall value, before proving himself healthy, he likely isn't now. Meanwhile, the Lions also have to budget for an extension for Branch, assuming he comes back healthy like LaPorta.

"I just got so much respect for Sam, how he goes about everything, what he's done here. You can't deny that he is one of the best tight ends in the NFL," Campbell said. "And on the flip side, I got so much respect for the front office here, how they handle things. And people at home will be like, 'Oh, it's easy for you to say because they treated you right,' but genuinely, going through that, I have a lot of respect for how they go about it and how they operate here."

LaPorta, at the moment, is apparently feeling otherwise. We'll see how long the stalemate continues. In the meantime, "Everyone’s behind Sam, so it’s all good," said Campbell. "In the locker room, no one’s said anything. It’s normal."