On Sunday, the Detroit Lions dropped the disappointing news that Kerby Joseph—along with Brian Branch and tight end Tyler Conklin—would start training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list. While all three players are eligible to come off the PUP list at any time, it’s still a disheartening development for Joseph, who has been dealing with an unspecified chronic knee injury for almost a full year now.
On Saturday, Joseph appeared to give a positive update, asking his followers on Twitter “How
much yall wanna bet im not on [PUP].” Less than 24 hours later, he was officially put on PUP.
Joseph playfully reacted to the news Sunday night, joking on social media that “Yall should’ve bet me.” But after facing considerable backlash on Twitter, he responded to a ton of fans—posting over 50 tweets from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. While most of them were just clapping back at people who were being confrontational with him, Joseph also had a few tweets in there that offered some insight into what he’s going through.
“like right my knee not too good,” Joseph said in one tweet.
In his most substantial tweet, Joseph said the following:
“I can’t tell yall everything lol… Update fr [for real],” Joseph wrote.
“My faith is unbreakable
“I can walk now
“I’m not in hella pain nomore so I’m not dropping to the floor like the Kansas [City] game
“If yall wanna know if I can play this season just ask God … send some prayers also.”
That certainly doesn’t sound like a particularly promising development for Joseph, but we’ll hopefully get some clarification when coach Dan Campbell speaks with the media during the team’s first training camp practice on Wednesday. Earlier this offseason, Campbell admitted he didn’t have a clear vision on Joseph’s availability for the 2026 season.
“I honestly do not know. I know this, we’ve done everything we can do and he’s done everything he can do to this point,” Campbell said in June. “And we are trying to be as smart as we can and not push this until we absolutely have to because once we’ve done that, then we’ll know one way or another and it’s not worth it right now.
“We’re just slowly building, continuing the strength in there. He’s getting treatment. He’s done some of these different things at different places to try to help. So, I feel good about that. I feel good about that we’ve done everything we can and so has he. And so, we won’t know. I mean honestly, we probably won’t know until we get into the thick of training camp.”
We’re still a ways away from the “thick” of training camp, so let’s hope Joseph’s outlook improves by then.
