As part of their roster cutdowns on Sunday, the Detroit Lions placed both starting safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch on the reserve/Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list per several reports. That means both players won’t count against the 53-man roster, but both are now ineligible to play in Detroit’s first four games of the season.
Joseph is still dealing with a knee injury, suffered last year, that he has been unable to shake. The injury cost Joseph the final 11 games of last season, and he’s been looking for ways to manage it. We’ve seen him do some intense workouts at training camp, but for the past couple of weeks, he’s been away from the facility with a “personal issue.”
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Branch is still recovering from a torn Achilles suffered in the first week of December last year. He has been at the Lions facility this training camp, and coach Dan Campbell noted that it’s possible he returns to practice as soon as late August, but it appears he didn’t quite hit that milestone. That said, Campbell has remained optimistic about each player’s progress.
“Both of those guys are doing well right now,” Campbell said on Thursday.
The good news for both players is that if they are nearing a return to practice, a new NFL rule will allow both players to start practicing just two weeks into their stint on PUP. That could give either or both players enough ramp-up time to be ready to play in Week 5 against the Arizona Cardinals. That said, Detroit does have a Week 6 bye, so it’s possible Detroit holds both out until Week 7 against the Green Bay Packers.
The first four games of the season they will definitely miss are: vs. Saints, at Bills, vs. Jets, and at Panthers.
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In their place, the Lions will likely rely on veterans Chuck Clark and Avonte Maddox to start at safety, with Thomas Harper and Christian Izien set to back up the position. That said, Maddox, Harper, and Izien are all currently dealing with injuries with unknown timelines, so it’s possible the Lions may try to add to the position before Week 1 begins in two weeks .
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