All-Pro Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph said he’s “super optimistic” he will return to the field early this season from the lingering knee injury that’s threatened to derail his career.
Joseph held a short impromptu news conference with reporters after Lions practice on Thursday, July 30, in which he plugged his new YouTube channel and said he’s entrusting his return to God, but offered few details about his knee and the lengths he went to this offseason to try and get healthy.
“I’m super optimistic, man,” Joseph said when asked about the chances he’ll return early in the season and be able to make it through the year. “I never gave up. I’m going to always work hard. All I do is work. If you see me outside, I’m working.”
Joseph opened camp on the physically unable to perform list after missing 11 games last season with a degenerative condition in his knee.
He has not played since a Week 6 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last October and Lions coach Dan Campbell indicated this week Joseph is unlikely to be ready for the Lions’ season opener Sept. 13 against the New Orleans Saints.
“To me, if we got him back for the first game, that would be a bonus,” Campbell said. “I mean, that would be a like, ‘Whoa, OK.’ I don’t expect that, I’m not looking for that.”
Joseph went through an intense workout on a side field with trainers during the Lions’ first practice of camp Wednesday, July 29, and watched most of practice Thursday from the sideline.
He’s appeared in good spirts this spring and summer, a stark contrast from the somber tone he took in his one interview with reporters last fall after he learned he was dealing with a cartilage issue in his knee. At the time, Joseph said his knee was “messed up” and couldn’t be fixed by surgery.
On Thursday, Joseph said he woke up one day last season to find his knee “was just swollen” and has been dealing with the injury every since.
“I found out at the same time everybody else found out at the same time,” he said. “I woke up, it was swollen, I didn’t think nothing much. I was just like, ‘Ah, I can still run, do all this, I’m fitting to go out there and practice.’
“We had a scrimmage, but I’m running, I’m like, ‘Man, I ain’t that fast today.’ I thought I ate good that day, so I’m thinking it’s a little breakfast or something going on. Nah, my knee is just, I couldn’t – and I got the MRI, I got the news, I said, ‘Umm.’ I peeped though, cause they was telling me about my injury and all that, this and that. I said only person that can help me with this is God. So we going to do what they do until God say I got to sit down and God sat me out the Kansas game and there you go.”
Joseph declined to say what steps he took to treat his knee this offseason or what doctors he visited to treat the injury.
“Things like that I can’t disclose,” he said. “But God brought people into my life and that I’m so thankful that I met these people and I just hope that they receive all the blessings that they get and all the support and the love that they gave me I’m super thankful for and that’s all I can say about it.”
The NFL leader with 20 interceptions over the past four seasons, Joseph was a first-team All-Pro selection in 2024 and signed a four-year, $86 million extension last spring that made him the highest-paid safety in the game.
Brian Branch, Joseph’s cohort at safety in the Lions secondary the past three seasons, also is on PUP to start training camp and unlikely to be ready for the start of the regular season.
Joseph called the last 10 months his “walk with God” – “Even though I got a bad knee, I’m walking with God, I swear,” he said – and said, “God got the timeline” for when he’ll return to the field.
He said he’d answer more questions about his knee in time on social media.
“I got a song that dropped, it’s called Fly Today. Y’all go check it out,” he said. “It sounds pretty good. I’m a part-time rapper, football first [and] foremost. I play football first. The song sound good, go check it out.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kerby Joseph talks with reporters, gives few answers on health of knee
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
