{"id":766567,"date":"2026-07-16T16:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766567\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:16:09","slug":"nfl-top-10-safeties-lions-still-have-2-blue-chip-dbs-despite-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766567\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL top-10 safeties: Lions still have 2 blue-chip DBs despite injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN concluded their positional rankings on Thursday with safeties. If you haven\u2019t seen the series yet, they polled NFL executives, coaches, and scouts to determine the top-10 players at each position. Several Detroit Lions have made the list, and in the final installment of the series\u2014the top-10 safeties in the NFL for the 2026 season<\/a>\u2014the Lions had two more players make the list.<\/p>\n

Brian Branch came in at No. 4 on the list, while Kerby Joseph ranked ninth. That\u2019s down from last year\u2019s list, where the two ranked No. 2 and No.5, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cVersatility, toughness, smarts — he\u2019s a complete player,\u201d one passing game coordinator said about Branch. \u201cHe\u2019s a baller when healthy. He\u2019s got elite instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe finds the ball,\u201d a scout said about Joseph. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to find guys with post range like him who can play over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the elephant in the room with both players is injuries. Branch suffered a torn Achilles in early December, and the overwhelming expectation is that he\u2019ll miss at least the first month of the season as he continues to recover. The good news is that he hasn\u2019t appeared to suffer any sort of setback, and he\u2019ll be expected to return to form at some point.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Joseph\u2019s situation is a little less clear. He\u2019s dealing with a knee injury that Dan Campbell once said was a condition that won\u2019t be \u201cnecessarily going away, but I think you do the best you can to manage it.\u201d Detroit shelved Joseph this spring, hoping to delay any irritation of the knee until necessary. However, Campbell openly admitted this spring that he has no idea how Joseph\u2019s knee will react to action on the football field once he returns.<\/p>\n

\u201dI don\u2019t know. I honestly do not know,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI know this, we\u2019ve done everything we can do, and he\u2019s done everything he can do to this point. And we are trying to be as smart as we can and not push this until we absolutely have to because once we\u2019ve done that, then we\u2019ll know one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Joseph\u2019s knee responds to action this summer could decide his future in Detroit. While he\u2019s only one year into a big extension, the Lions may consider getting out of the deal before a $16.6 million option bonus hits in 2027 if his career is in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

This is all likely a frustrating position for the Lions to be in. They have two players who are commonly believed to be top-10 safeties in the league, but they may not see either player at their physical peak this year\u2014or possibly ever again.<\/p>\n

Still, this ranking provides the kind of perspective Lions fans (or doubters) need. With the series at its conclusion, the Lions have tallied:<\/p>\n

Not many teams can boast that much top-level talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN concluded their positional rankings on Thursday with safeties. If you haven\u2019t seen the series yet, they polled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[2131,4992,5192,349,99],"class_list":["post-766567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-detroit-lions-analysis","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-detroit-lions-opinion","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}