\u201cI want to be back my damn self, so I\u2019m ready to be out there,\u201d Branch said in the locker room on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Lions coach Dan Campbell said \u201cit\u2019ll take a minute\u201d for Branch to kick off the rust, considering he hasn\u2019t had any practice reps in almost a full year. However, Branch feels like he\u2019s already starting to acclimate just one practice in. And after learning from toe surgery rehab two years ago, he\u2019s much more locked in mentally, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cShoot, I\u2019m getting the rust off now in practice,\u201d Branch said. \u201cI feel good. Honestly, when I had surgery on my toe two years ago, coming back I was kinda in my head. But this time, I don\u2019t know what transpired or what\u2019s been going on with me, but I ain\u2019t in my head. I\u2019m ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branch also offered some optimism about the other half of the Lions\u2019 safety duo, Kerby Joseph. Joseph has been battling a knee injury for over a year, and his timeline for a return continues to get pushed back. But Branch believes Joseph will be back.<\/p>\n
\u201cKerb\u2019s my dawg. We\u2019ve been\u2014we ain\u2019t quitting, man,\u201d Branch said. \u201cInjured, we\u2019ve been in this thing together for, what, 10 months, man? It\u2019s been a long road. We\u2019ve been fighting every day. He gonna be alright. He gonna be back. We\u2019re gonna be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is still no timeline for Joseph\u2019s return. The last time coach Dan Campbell offered an update on Joseph\u2019s condition, he only reiterated that they won\u2019t put him out on the field until they\u2019re confident his knee is healthy and protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just know we 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 on Sept. 21. \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
In the meantime, the Lions\u2019 safety room consists of Chuck Clark, Christian Izien, Jalen Mills (practice squad), and Bishop Fitzgerald. Earlier on Wednesday, Campbell indicated that they may lean more on Mills this week vs. the Cardinals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI want to be back my damn self, so I\u2019m ready to be out there,\u201d Branch said in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[264323,4992,349,99],"class_list":["post-874799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-detroit-lions-injuries","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874799","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=874799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}