On Monday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell noted that safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph will remain sidelined on the Physically Unable to Perform list, despite them being eligible to return to practice this week. He noted that Branch is closer to returning than Joseph, and then gave some additional details on Joseph\u2019s recovery from a knee injury that has now lingered for over a full year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were strengthening the knee, and it wasn\u2019t a setback, but there was a little time there where we weren\u2019t able to do everything we needed to do. And so now we\u2019re back at it,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cAnd until we can get the knee to a certain point to where it feels strong, as strong as we can possibly get it and he feels comfortable. We\u2019re not going to put him out there until he\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lions fans have been understandably skeptical about Joseph\u2019s football future. The team has said there is no surgery or procedure that fixes this issue. It\u2019s something Joseph will just have to manage. At times, it seems like the former All-Pro safety was nearing a return, only for Campbell to provide a dubious update.<\/p>\n
So some have started to question whether Joseph will ever play another down of football in his life.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, 97.1 The Ticket radio host Jim Costa asked Campbell what he would say to Lions fans who think Joseph will never play again. Campbell\u2019s response was not reassuring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I wish I could make you feel good. I can\u2019t make you feel good,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to come as it comes, and he\u2019s not ready. We\u2019re trying to get him there as fast as we can, and we\u2019re trying to be as smart about it as we can. And if he\u2019s ready, when he\u2019s ready, of course we want to play him and get him on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Costa followed it up with another question, and Campbell gave a puzzling response that did not sound particularly good:<\/p>\n
Costa: \u201cWhat would have to change? Because we\u2019re coming up on a year since that Chiefs game. If he\u2019s unable to practice what would change for him to get out there?\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell: \u201cI guess, nothing.\u201c<\/p>\n
At this point, it certainly seems like the Lions are operating under the assumption they are going to get very little\u2014if anything\u2014out of Joseph this season. And you have to wonder what that means for the rest of his football career with a $16.6 million option bonus due in March of 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell noted that safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph will remain sidelined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[264323,4992,4993,99],"class_list":["post-856737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-detroit-lions-injuries","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-detroit-lions-quotes","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856737","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=856737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}