And what are the practical outs for the Lions, @DeadStroke ?
I see a bunch of options and then this injury guarantee “Joseph has $13 million in injury protection for 2027 that will become fully guaranteed (partially in 2026, and remaining in 2027).”
We fans were blindsided by his knee issues, but it sure seems that the Lions were fully aware of the “damaged goods” they were buying.
Kerby Joseph Contract Details, Salary Cap Charges, Bonus Money, and Contract History | Over The Cap
It’s not all that uncommon for star players to have injury guarantees in their contract. Alex Smith had a $16 million injury only guarantee in his contract that was applied after that gruesome leg injury. I believe these guarantees are only triggered if they can’t play for the entire season… Which I don’t think will apply to Kerby. I think he’ll play… For how long or how well remains to be seen
The short is “yes”…. the Lions have an out after 2026 that will not result in a ton of guaranteed money being paid after this season.
Kerby has significant money guaranteed (supposedly ~ $13 million) for injury only in 2027, but that typically is only paid if he can’t pass a physical.
Best I can tell, Kerby will get $8.74 million of his 2027 option bonus if he is released after this season.
So the Lions were blindsided along with us fans about the long term degenerative knee issue?
To me, it seems the significant yearly option bonuses plus the injury guarantees suggest that they understood the long term risks with Kerby. They had no reason to broadcast those long term risks, so until it impacted his play, we were in the dark.
I’m glad they paid him for what he did, while protecting the team somewhat against diminishing health.
I wonder though… it’s possible for the degenerative knee to be the result of an injury specifically. In fact I think that’s more often the case than something genetic. Most of these guys, especially the younger ones, haven’t had enough years for typical ‘wear and tear’ degenerative issues. Something has sped up the process, usually an injury.
And Kerby had had quite a few issues since he signed that contract (and since our brass is really hush-hush about it, we really don’t know the specifics). Many seemed minor at the time, but those minor injuries can lead to degenerative issues pretty quickly.
I am a case in point actually, I used to play basketball basically every day, and I eventually got ‘jumper’s knee’ (patellar tendinitis). It doesn’t really hurt and you can play through it, but by doing so, you can cause long-term damage. Worse, it ‘heals’ quickly, to the point that a few days after you feel like you can go again, only to step wrong and have to start all over from scratch. If you don’t rest and let it completely heal - even when you feel fine a few days later - you can eventually develop patellar tendinOSIS, which is exactly what happened to me. Permanent tissue damage, I barely have the strength to go up stairs with that leg.
And that is not the only injury that works like that, the way this has all played out has me believing Kerby experienced something similar. Especially with all the false starts.
Savvy novice hoopsters deploy set shots for a reason.
I had a nasty set shot.
It’s the soaring dunks where I needed to scale back.
It looks like OTC has $10M already fully guaranteed for 2027 (another $3M will guarantee in 2027) and he’s due a total of $18.5M in cash for 2027.
To me, the Lions will owe Kerby $13M for 2027 no matter what happens and if they were to cut him (save $5.5M in 2027). At a bare minimum, they will have paid Kerby $32.5M on his $85M contract for what we got from him in 2026, if he is cut before the nonguaranteed $5.5M is due.
Pictures or it didn’t happen. 
The option bonuses are just salary cap manipulation, nothing to do with a true option.
This was the disposable camera era. Photos of me doing anything but posing and smiling pre-age-25ish are scarce. I DID partake of a hype dunk video for a friend’s media class project, but this was purely old camcorder footage, the ones that were the size of boom boxes on your shoulder. Long gone.
Oh, and we were all in 6th grade and the rims were like 7 feet high.
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From what I can find, there was no mention of any knee injury at the time he signed his extension (April 2025).
The first news of a knee issue occurred in July 2025, when he apparently suffered a bone bruise in training camp.
A bone bruise does not imply a cartilage tear or defect. They usually heal over time.
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He then aggravated that same injury in week 4, possibly damaging the articular cartilage (on end of femur) to a further extent, and possibly adding a PCL sprain to the equation.
This is the play that may have altered his career.
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This play in week 4 could have resulted in a cartilage tear or defect, which looks like this image below.
This is the type of injury that results in discussion of “bone on bone” issues that have ended careers like Todd Gurley.
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The elevator nets were the best. 360 dunks and alley oops over the neighbourhood punks. The elevator nets gave white young boys hope. 
Wow, thanks for that breakdown…of Kerby’s broken down knee. I did read Kerby’s quote at the time, but clearly ignored it because my powers of denial are so great. Those things happen to every team, but we seem to be a magnet for them.
So you sent me down a little learning wormhole, and TIL what I grew up simply calling a ‘poke-out net’ was called an elevator net in other parts of the country. We all used them the same way though
Never heard that term before. We always called them elevators or adjustable nets.
Yeah I just learned all of that. They had a lot of regional names. Elevator nets, poke-out nets, seems they were called bucket nets or simply “choked” out east, but they were all for the same thing. And the end result was the same - giving a bunch no-athlete kids big dreams lol
No intel, just things I am picked up from reading and listening and a few conversations. It seems like it was a result of an injury that occurred last training camp.
So looks like @Phunnypharm might be on to something, that “bone bruise” might have been a little worse than they let on.
@Phunnypharm is smart as hell, what are you guys always telling me, this den is pretty smart?
