Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph is still not ready to get back on the field this week, but the early signs of his ramp-up have been hard to miss.
Joseph has spent the last stretch working his way back from a knee injury that kept him out of football activities for more than a year. Last week, Detroit opened his 21-day evaluation clock and began easing him into walkthroughs, along with extra work with teammates after practice.
This week brought a bigger test: his first team action. And according to Lions safeties coach Jim O’Neill, Joseph came out of it looking ahead of schedule.
“It’s been great. Two weeks ago, it was classroom work, where we were really locked in.
Then it was walkthrough and individual. Yesterday was his first team practice, and he looked a lot better than what I anticipated him looking (like),” O’Neil said.
“So it was very encouraging. So now he’s gotta stack multiple days.
He’s got to stack them, so today will be a big day for him, but he looked awesome yesterday at practice.”
O’Neil pointed to a group effort behind Joseph’s progress. The medical staff has mapped out and carried out the recovery plan.
Players such as Dominic Lovett and Jackson Meeks have stayed after practice to help Joseph catch up on the reps he’s missed during the ramp-up. But O’Neil made it clear that Joseph’s own fight has been the biggest part of the story.
“He’s worked his ass off. He has.
He’s gone through a mental battle, he’s gone through a physical battle, and he’s in a great place right now,” O’Neil said. “And I’m excited for him, and I know how hard he’s working.
I know how hard it must be to be at the top of your game and then have it taken away from you. He’s grinded to get back to the level that he’s used to playing at and at his standard.”
For Joseph, the next hurdle is less about one good day and more about proving he can handle a string of them. O’Neil said the challenge now is stacking practices while continuing to see how the knee responds to a heavier workload. He also noted that Joseph hasn’t really played at a Pro Bowl level in nearly two years, even while he was on the field in 2025.
If Detroit gets the 2024 version of Kerby Joseph back, and Brian Branch keeps moving forward now that he’s returned from his 2025 Achilles injury, the Lions’ secondary could start looking very different. O’Neil sees that as a chance to expand what Detroit can do on the back end.
“As we get guys back, guys like with Kerby’s skillset or (Thomas) Harper’s skillset, that just opens up the door to do more stuff with Branch,” O’Neil said. “He can go down, he can do dime roles, he can play nickel roles. You can use him more of a chess piece as we get some guys back in the defense and in that secondary.”
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