Lions safety Kerby Joseph: "My time's coming"

After seeing Brian Branch return with a bang last week, Kerby Joseph says his time is coming.

Joseph practiced this week for the first time in more than a year as he tries to come back from a chronic knee injury that ended his season after six games last year. He said Friday that "being back out (on the field) feels nostalgic" and that his knee feels good.

Joseph wasn't spotted at practice Friday in the portion that was open to the media, but confirmed that he did practice in some capacity.

"Yeah, sometimes I like to work in silence," he said.

Branch made his season debut last week after recovering from a torn Achilles and came down with an interception in the Lions' win over the Packers. Beaming, Joseph exclaimed, "Did ya'll see BB's pick? BOY! WHAT? YEAH!!"

"Man, it's amazing," he said. "I'm trying to contain myself, but every time I go out there (on the field), I feel like I'm out there (in the game) in spirit, especially being on the sideline, hyping them guys up. It's always a great feeling to be out there."

Asked how eager he is to join his teammates on Sundays, he smiled and said, "Zuper eager. I feel like Zupe energy is infectious, so I just gotta keep going. My time is coming."

The Lions started Joseph's practice clock on Wednesday. They have three weeks from that date to either activate him from injured reserve or shut him down for the season. The plan from here, said Joseph, is just to "keep going."

Asked if this is the closest he's been to playing since the injury, Joseph said, "I mean, I haven’t practiced in a long time, so this week felt pretty good being out there. I’m still him. I hope y’all ain’t forget. I’m still him. I’ve gotta go do some other stuff real quick, but I’m still him."

Joseph acknowledged that the last year or so has been "a roller coaster, especially with this knee." As for a potential return date, he's leaving it up to higher powers: "Whenever God want me on that field, I’m going to be on that field."

Dan Campbell said before Friday's practice that Joseph has "done a good job" in his return to practice and that "it's good so far now." Getting back on the field was just the first step toward playing in games. Joseph only did individual work this week, "but he's handled that well," Campbell said. The plan is to work him into team drills next week and continue ramping up his workload.

"We just progress him slowly here, work him in. We'll get him a little bit more today of that type of work. Plus, we surplus after the fact. We still do some rehabilitation, get him some of those miles that he's not getting right now that he normally gets, the running, the volume. And then next week we'll have him in real practice," Campbell said.

Joseph still has a long way to get back on the field on Sundays. He was wearing a compression sleeve on his leg at practice Thursday, which he wasn't wearing Wednesday, but Campbell downplayed that Friday.

"Any way you can reduce any swelling that could be (occurring) or minimize it, you're always going to do that with anything -- elbow, shoulder, people coming off of injury. And like I say, we're in the infant stages of this," Campbell said. "It's been positive to this date. That's the best way to say it."