The Lions have created a luxury problem that could turn into trade capital
Detroit Lions have one of the deepest positions in football. One room is so loaded right now that Detroit could eventually find itself turning surplus talent into future draft capital.
There is no doubt that the Detroit Lions are super deep at safety right now. It may very well be their deepest spot on the entire team. That’s quite a luxury to have. If Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph are ready Week 1, it becomes way more luxurious.
To the point where the Lions will likely start getting calls to trade one of their safeties away
Let’s start on the Branch side of things. Nothing is set in stone, but the belief right now is that Branch could be back sooner than you think. Like, potentially at training camp.
“He could be, he could be. Look there are no setbacks with him, that’s what I can tell you.” Campbell said last week. “He’s doing a good job, he’s putting in the work but it’s a little until we really get closer, I hate to start throwing a timetable on him, but he’s doing well.”
Then on top of that, you see Branch on the field in receiving gloves and cleats, at least getting a little bit of work in.
At this point, Joseph feels like more of a question mark for Week 1 than Branch does, and it’s simply because we just don’t know where he’s at right now. But, we’re going purely based on vibes. And I mean 100% based on vibes. There is nothing about Kerby Joseph’s demeanor right now that suggests he’s a guy whose career is about to be either over or in serious flux. On top of that, here he is in his uniform this week. Nobody is operating like this guy isn’t going to be on the field at training camp day one.
Ok, so let’s really look at this. If Branch and Joseph are there in Week 1, the Lions have four more very capable starters on the bench. Not every team has six starting-caliber safeties on its roster. Which is why someone may call.
But who would the Lions likely be willing to move? Christian Izien and Thomas Harper are probably as safe as you can get. Both are young players that the Lions feel they can develop even more, and they both offer some versatility at other positions.
Chuck Clark is a valuable veteran, and so is Avonte Maddox. Both are guys a lot of teams would probably love to have. The latter being someone who could probably have the most trade value if they were to move one of the two. The Lions could probably pull a sixth or seventh-round pick. Nothing huge, but something they didn’t already have.
By the way, just because they might get offers does not mean they’d actually do something. This is a very advantageous place to be in if you’re Detroit. It’s a wait and see until the end of August when cutdowns come.
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