Campbells response was not a positive one today. Its been a year. If he ends up being done, we are going to look back on this and ask why Brad didn’t do more. Hope and finger crossing at the safety position is not really a plan.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Gig2eF4eO6c?si=ieLT0wgX1rqMEDUI
**Sorry Can someone just merge this into the Kerby thread? I didnt see the existing one way down there.
I brought this up a few days ago. No news is bad news
I would think bad news. Maybe they think improved D line play is the solution.
Yeah, this is going to be a limiting factor unless Shepard has been studying how to make chaos with mid-tier safeties
I’m guessing he goes on IR in training camp and that’s it for him. I can’t imagine they do another Decker thing where he never practices and then just pops in to play or even if he’s just a reserve and plays a few times a game which would be pointless. Unfortunate thing to have happen.
Its such Lions luck to have the best young 2 safety combo in the league to no safeties. Hopefully Branch can come back but itll be a year before he is Branch again, at best.
And then is branch even back to his old self? It sucks.. but such is the way of the game especially these days! 3-5 year careers, if that.
We have safeties.
The problem is, his contract make it so it’s really not worth cutting him.
Keep vs cut costs. (Cut before league new year when option bonus is due)
26: $5.5m vs $29.5m (net -$24 to cut)
27: $9.2m vs $23.7m (net -$14.5 to cut)
28: $13.0m vs $23.0m (net -$10 to cut)
Imo he’s done. Its Todd Gurley all over again but worse. If he can’t even practice at this stage then their’s no hope for him to be available on GameDay. I suspect he’ll be released next off-season and they’ll draft his replacement.
Lmao not a Joseph type. Dude was a play maker.
Yeah, it’s almost like replacing one of the 5 or so best single high free safeties of the the last 10-15 years is difficult. And I’m talking peak not duration.
It’s an extremely tough profile to replace. We could have traded down from 17 and grabbed Stukes but then people would be freaking out about Borom.
This is the NFL. You’re going to have some roster holes. We do but we might as well kick a bunch of ass anyways. Which is precisely what we are going to do.
I’ve been saying since last year when those horrifying pictures of his knee came out that he will likely never be the same again and that the Lions should plan for life without their young star safety duo. The way Campbell has talked about him going back to last year just confirms my fears that the Kerby we used to know is never coming back at that level again. I was surprised that the Lions didn’t go with safety at least in the middle rounds. It’s a major weakness that only got moderately addressed in free agency.
Major weakness? Depends on what Branch looks like when he comes back. I think I’m significantly higher on Harper and Izien than most on here are. I think they can be replacement level starters. I think we may need to deploy them differently to get there.
Harper flashed some stuff last year and Izien is also pretty young so there’s potential but this is a recent undrafted free agent and a guy who got a 1 year $2m contract. If you’re depending on these two as your starters with shallow depth beyond that, that’s risky. I’m not expecting much from Branch and Joseph this season, I’m of the mentality that they’re not to be counted on so yes it’s probably the biggest weakness on the team right now IMO along with the questions about Anzalone’s role being filled. I think the Lions will be improved on the defensive line so that should help but the secondary is littered with question marks.
Risky is different than describing it as a major weakness. And adding a fifth round rookie safety hardly makes the proposition less risky than adding Clark and bringing back Maddox. Maddox was pretty good at safety towards the end of the year.
And loading up on a high dollar replacement didn’t make sense given that we don’t know what we have in Kerby and/or Branch.
You guys are all acting like we don’t have Dirty Dan Jackson coming back this year.
Dan’s reaction and body language made me think Kirby will not be returning this year, maybe at all.
This is where not having a 3rd round pick hurt them. I didn’t expect them to sign a big money safety because, quite frankly, they can’t afford to anyway (even more reason why the Kerby injury sucks because it happened AFTER he got his massive deal) and I think they pretty much shoehorned themselves into drafting for need in the first two rounds at more premium positions so having a 3rd to address safety would have come in handy.
I was glad they brought Maddox back and I was fine with the Izien signing but all these guys are depth guys mainly IMO, not guys you want to bank on to anchor the backend of the secondary over the course of a season. I say this also knowing that there could be some growth potential with Harper and Izien but as of now they look like question marks to me. It’s the biggest question mark on the team, biggest weakness, IMO.