Pride of Detroit
It’s been a rough season for Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph. After a strong start—nabbing three interceptions in the first six games of the season—Joseph has been sidelined with a knee injury for the past six contests. The Lions have not placed him on injured reserve, yet he hasn’t practiced, and the only updates we’ve been regularly getting is that he’s improving.
Things came to a head this week when Joseph went on social media, posted a couple of concerning messages (“God help me,” “I’m lost 4 words”) before deleting his social media accounts completely.
Afterwards, we got a little bit of clarity from coach Dan Campbell and Joseph himself via a pair of media sessions. So let’s break it all down.
Note: We will not be using any speculation on his injury from internet doctors who are guessing diagnoses based on video and comments. I understand the value of those expert opinions, but I would rather deal in hard facts for this post.
While there is no direct diagnosis of Joseph’s injury, we know that it is a knee injury that includes a bone bruise. Here’s what Campbell said this week about the specifics of the injury.
“I think bone bruise was certainly part of it, but it’s also just–he’s got some wear. He’s got a little wear, that’s all.
The beginning of this knee injury is unclear. He missed some time in training camp. Here’s what Campbell said about it then (August 18):
“Yeah, it’s something he’s been dealing with a little bit. So, he won’t be out there today. We’re hoping to get him back late in the week, that’s the hope right now. We don’t feel like it’s a major problem, it’s just something we’re trying to manage right now and get it calmed down.”
Joseph would eventually return to practice and was off the injury report for Week 1. However, he was back on it for Weeks 2 and 3, before being off it again in Week 4.
Since after the Lions’ Week 4 game against the Cleveland Browns, he’s been listed with a knee injury every week on the injury report. He played with that injury for two more games (Bengals, Chiefs) before being sidelined for the next six. In the Browns and Chiefs game, Joseph left temporarily, only to return later.
Per Campbell, the concern is stability in his leg. In order for them to feel comfortable with him playing, they need to build up strength around it.
“A lot of it is just trying to get some stability in the leg. Get some strength, get some stability, which in turn will help some of the pain but also some of the wear and tear,” Campbell said. “The stronger you get it in there, it stabilizes it, so it doesn’t wear out as fast or create that kind of pain with it.”
Why the Lions didn’t...
