It’s time for the Lions to give their fans something on Kerby Joseph and the direction this is going; the hardest question is getting impossible to ignore
Joseph will miss Detroit’s first four games after being moved to Reserve/PUP, extending an injury timeline that has remained frustratingly difficult to define.
The Detroit Lions placed safety Kerby Joseph on the PUP list to start the 2026 season, meaning he will miss at least the first four games. The move continues a long stretch of uncertainty surrounding the All-Pro safety’s knee, and at this point, the Lions owe their fanbase at least a sliver of clarity on where this is headed.
Look, I’ve spent a lot of time defending Kerby Joseph’s knee situation. The majority of that has been rallying against the internet doctors trying to tell you this is a career-ending injury. I still think those people are wrong. I still think the entire idea of a doctor giving out a diagnosis without seeing a patient is bad, and we shouldn’t pay any attention to it.
With all that said, the Lions have got to give us something.
The timeline keeps sliding
You go into OTAs and mandatory minicamp and Joseph doesn’t practice. Fine. No big deal. He doesn’t need to be out there. He’s doing his conditioning, doing his thing. The Lions talked about how they wanted to play it safe with him, be smart about it. That is the absolute way you should handle it. Makes all the sense in the world.
But then you get to training camp, where we all thought he’d show up. The night before camp started, Joseph seemed to think he’d be there too. He wasn’t outright saying it, but he was betting fans he wouldn’t be on the PUP list. The Lions put him on the PUP list the very next day.
From my standpoint, and this is not me reporting anything or claiming inside knowledge, the outside view suggested maybe Joseph thought he could play but Detroit wanted to take it even slower. Then the Lions told us he could be back at practice by the end of August. We’re at the end of August now, and instead of practicing, Joseph is on the PUP list to start the regular season.
So he’s going to miss the first four games. Maybe he’s back Week 5 against the Cardinals. Maybe he comes back after the bye. I don’t know what the Lions are doing because they won’t give us anything.
They don’t have to, but come on
Here’s the thing. They don’t have to tell us anything. We can complain about it all we want. The Lions have to tell us absolutely nothing about any of this, and we just have to take it. I respect that. I wholeheartedly believe Detroit doesn’t owe us this information. But at the same time, it’s like, come on, guys. Where is this going? Give us some sort of indication.
I asked Lions coach Dan Campbell on Thursday. They didn’t know yet, and that’s fine. They made a decision today to start the season on PUP. Now the question is, where does this go? Is it a situation where they’re playing it unbelievably ultra safe, refusing to put Joseph on the field until they absolutely need to?
And to be clear, do they need to right now? I am not saying he’s expendable. Not at all. But Chuck Clark has been looking good. Avonte Maddox has been looking good. Those two at safety have looked like they can handle it. The secondary is looking good. The defensive front is looking good. You would love to have your ball-hawking All-Pro safety back, but you don’t know when that’s going to happen.
The question nobody wants to ask
Maybe Joseph only plays the back half of the season and the playoffs. Maybe that’s what the Lions are aiming for. But this can’t be what it looks like long-term. You just don’t do this with a player this good that you’re paying this much. Maybe this year, I get it. But is this what it’s always going to be like?
If that’s the case, then at some point you have to do the thing everybody hates the most and say this isn’t going to work out. Letting go of Kerby Joseph right now is the very bottom of the list of things you should even be thinking about. But at what point do you look at a guy who can’t practice every week, can’t take part in training camp every year, and isn’t available for every game, and say, we love you, but we can’t wait anymore?
I don’t think there’s any arguing between the player and the coaching staff. I don’t think there’s any controversy. I think the Lions are trying to be as smart as they possibly can. If that is the case, it would be nice if they telegraphed it just a little bit. Give us a glimmer of “it’s going to be okay, but right now we need to wait.”
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