Why the annual Detroit Lions PUP list freakout continues to be the most pointless worrying fans do
Detroit Lions’ annual PUP list panic is officially back. One look at the team’s recent history adds some much-needed perspective.
The Detroit Lions placed safety Kerby Joseph on the physically unable to perform list to start training camp, and Lions fans immediately lost their minds. I get it. I really do. Fan is short for fanatic. But this happens every single year with every single team, and the PUP list does not mean what most people think it means.
I’m getting comments on Twitter asking how much money Detroit could save if they release him. People are jumping to the absolute worst conclusion they can find. So let’s break it down, because there needs to be a bigger understanding of what the PUP list actually is and what it isn’t.
The PUP list is not the injured reserve
The PUP list is not a death sentence. It does not mean a player can’t play this season. More often than not, it means one of a few things. The player was injured last year and isn’t ready to return yet. The player did not pass his conditioning test. Or the player is returning from an injury and the team wants to ease him back in before the grind of the regular season. There are nearly 50 players across the league on this list right now. It is completely normal.
History is on the Lions’ side
Let’s go back and look at every Lions player who started training camp on the PUP list and what happened after that.
In 2021, the Lions put Austin Bryant on the PUP list. Bryant played 14 games that season and finished with 4.5 sacks. Pretty good year.
In 2022, Jerry Jacobs started camp on the PUP list and played 12 games. Romeo Okwara was also on the list and played just five games, but he had significant injury history coming into that. Josh Paschal went on the PUP list and played 10 games.
In 2023, Detroit didn’t have anybody start the year on the PUP list.
In 2024, Brian Branch started on the PUP list. Branch went on to have a Pro Bowl season. DJ Reader started on the PUP list and played 15 games. Marcus Davenport was on the list too, but Davenport was eternally on some sort of list, so that’s hard to judge.
In 2025, Alim McNeill started on the PUP list because he was coming back from a torn ACL. He came back later in the year. Taylor Decker was dealing with a shoulder injury, wound up playing the entire season. Khalil Dorsey played 11 games. Miles Frazier came in later from something he was dealing with from college. Malcolm Rodriguez was coming off his torn ACL from the year before and came back. Mehki Wingo came back before the season even started.
Out of all of those players, the only real concern was Okwara back in 2022. Every other player came off the list and contributed.
What this likely means for Kerby Joseph
To be honest, this is pure speculation on my part. But my guess is that Joseph put out that tweet the other day because he feels ready to come back and practice immediately, but the Lions want to ease him in. The way to do that is to put him on the PUP list for a short while, get him back athletically to the point where he would pass a conditioning test, and then get him on the field. That could be a week, that could be two weeks, but there is nothing that suggests adding him to the PUP list means his season is in jeopardy.
Players and teams being on different timelines is a tale as old as time.
Every year, Lions fans freak out about the PUP list. Every year, two or three weeks later, nobody even remembers it happened because the players come off the list and get back to work. The internet doctors are not right just because a player landed on the PUP list. This proves absolutely nothing.
Everybody just needs to calm down. History is on the Lions’ side here. Let’s see how the next couple weeks play out.
Detroit Lions News