Amid concerns about his status for this season, Kerby Joseph is staying optimistic.
"I’m super optimistic, bro! I never gave up," Joseph said Thursday after the Lions' second practice of camp. "I’m gonna always work hard. All I do is work. If you see me outside, I’m working."
Joseph hasn't played since early last season due to a degenerative knee issue that threatens to alter his career. He's been working off to the side in the early stages of camp, strengthening the knee for when he starts to practice. He was sprinting up the hill on the back of the Lions' practice fields on Wednesday, without any apparent hitch.
The Lions plan to get Joseph on the field in two to three weeks. The key will be how the knee responds.
Joseph deflected most questions Thursday to his YouTube channel and God, but did say that he woke up one morning last season and "my knee was just swollen."
"I didn’t think nothing much, I could still run, do all this, (went) out there and practiced, we had a scrimmage, but I’m running, like, 'Man, I ain’t that fast today,'" Joseph said.
Kerby Joseph: "I woke up, (knee) was swollen, didn’t think nothing much, I could still run, do all this, finna go out there and practice, but I’m running, like, 'Man, I ain’t that fast today.'"
"I got the MRI ... I said, the only person that can help me with this is God." pic.twitter.com/94b8gDPSoc
— 97.1 The Ticket: (@971theticketxyt) July 30, 2026
After getting an MRI and seeing the damage to his knee, Joseph said "the only person that can help me with this is God. So we’re going to do it until God says I gotta sit down, and God sat me down (after the) Kansas game, and there you go."
Joseph re-injured the knee in the Lions' Week 6 loss to the Chiefs and did not play again. Asked what he's done in terms of treatment this offseason, he said, "See, things like that I can’t disclose, but God brought people into my life and I’m so grateful that I met these people and all the support and love they gave me."
Joseph's injury is beyond the point of surgical repair, which is why he says that "God is going to take care of the rest."
"It was something out of my control," he said.
Dan Campbell said Wednesday that Joseph could be on a similar timeline to return as fellow star safety Brian Branch, who could come off the Physically Unable to Perform list in late August or early September.
That would put Branch, who's rehabbing a torn Achilles, on track to return in late September or October. The same could be applied to Joseph, without any setbacks.
"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. I feel like he’s more on the Branch plan a little bit, and that’s if everything goes well and everything goes according to plan with him and we got everything on our side. But he’s doing well."
Asked if he has a timeline for himself, Joseph said, "God going to work it out, God got the timeline. Whenever God wants me out there, I’m gonna be out there."
