Brian Branch has a long track record of fines in his young NFL career, and now he's been served a suspension. Is he developing the wrong reputation with the league?
"No, I don’t want to worry about all that reputation (talk)," Dan Campbell said Wednesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "Because the bottom line is, anybody that really knows Branch knows who he is, what he is. Brian Branch is not a bad person. He’s not a thug. He made a mistake."
Branch was suspended one game by the NFL, which was upheld Wednesday upon appeal, for smacking Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster in the face mask after the Lions' loss in Kansas City last Sunday night. It was another ill-timed outburst for a player who's had trouble controlling his emotions in the past.
Now the Lions will be without one of their best defensive players in an already-depleted secondary when they take on Baker Mayfield and the NFC-leading Buccaneers next Monday night.
"There’s things we’ve discussed and he knows he needs to be better and he knows he needs to contain himself at times, and he will," Campbell said. "He's going to learn from this and he’s going to be better for all this."
The forthcoming fine for Branch will be the 14th of his young career and his fourth this season. The first 13 added up to about $130,000. The suspension will cost him a game check, which amounts to $76,625.
Campbell has been on Branch about playing with more composure. Branch failed to heed the message in the Lions' season-opening loss at Lambeau, the same place where he was ejected from a game last year for a helmet-to-helmet hit and then flagged and fined again for flipping the double bird to the crowd on his way off the field. This year, he picked up an unsportsmanlike penalty and a fine for chucking the helmet of Packers tight end Tucker Kraft after an altercation on the first drive of the game, which led to a touchdown for Green Bay.
Without corners D.J. Reed and Terrion Arnold and defensive back Avonte Maddox last week, the Lions activated defensive backs Arthur Maulet, Nick Whiteside and Erick Hallett against the Chiefs. The latter two only played on special teams, while Maulet and safety Thomas Harper also got some work on defense.
With Branch joining Reed, Arnold and Maddox on the sidelines against the Bucs and Kerby Joseph sounding questionable with a knee injury, "we'll play with those guys that we brought last week," said Campbell.
"Listen, those guys will be ready," he said. "They’re not afraid to go in there and freaking battle. And we’ll be able to help those guys. We’ll set them up and let them be able to play fast."
Campbell said there's "nothing new" to report on Joseph, who was not able to practice last week and has been nursing a knee issue since training camp.
"He’s about what everybody thought after the game. He’s pretty sore, but it’s a long week, so we’ll see where he goes," said Campbell.
The Lions used Amik Robertson and Rock Ya-Sin at corner last week, and signed veteran cornerback Kendall Fuller this week to their practice squad. If they're missing both Branch and Joseph on Monday, they could play Ya-Sin at safety alongside Harper and potentially plug in Fuller at corner.