Brad Holmes 2026 Post-Draft: Kerby Joseph & Brian Branch Updates

Deciphering what we can from Holmes' comments

There wasn’t much from a health and injury standpoint in Brad Holmes’ post-draft press conference. But the lone health topic did focus on the most medically- concerning positional group - safety, due to the injuries to Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch.

Holmes had no comments on the other major injury concern in Sam LaPorta. There was also no discussion on the overall low medical concerns and youth of all the draftees.

So let’s get right into Holmes’ comments on Branch & Joseph. As always, we need to read-between-the-lines.

View Brad Holmes full press conference here.

Regarding the lack of drafting a safety, and what it says about the health of Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph:

Yeah, it wasn’t that we intentionally didn’t draft a safety because we feel good about [Branch & Joseph].

I feel like they’re both trending in the right direction, but it just didn’t line up just like hasn’t lined up at other positions in the past. We didn’t ignore it. There were some good ones that were out there that just got picked before we were able to, but it just didn’t quite line up.

And I didn’t really think that class was as deep either.

Holmes had a lukewarm response to the question of how he felt about the health of the Lions’ two star safeties. Saying they are trending in the right direction isn’t saying much of anything really. Even if things were going in the wrong direction for Branch or Joseph, he would not want to open up that public maelstrom in April.

What he implied is that neither player is ready right now. That’s totally expected for Branch who is less than five months post Achilles rupture (December 4, 2025). That’s concerning for Joseph whose injury is feared to be unfixable and chronic, with his last action over six months ago on October 12, 2025. It’s still early in the offseason though, so the hope is that there just isn’t any need to fully test things yet.

As far as not drafting a safety, Holmes implied that the safety position was absolutely on the board, but the right player simply didn’t fall to them in the draft. Based on my Positional Team Needs Rankings, I expected the Lions to have a strong interest in getting a young, healthy safety, and it sounds like the draft board just didn’t cooperate.

What if the Lions had a 3rd Round pick?

Holmes plainly admitted that the Lions were in the market for another safety, which brings up an interesting hypothetical. If the team had a 3rd Round pick and took one there, the perspective on the health of Joseph and Branch would look a lot different right now. (This is no criticism of using both of this year’s 3rd’s to trade up to get Isaac TeSlaa last year.)

What is the bottom line takeaway from Brad Holmes’ presser?

The bottom line is that Holmes’ statements did not move the needle either way in regards to my outlook of the injured safeties. While there wasn’t much optimism supplied, there also wasn’t anything definitively negative.

Branch is still expected to be ready to play around mid-season, while Joseph’s status is still highly uncertain.

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For the full medical analysis and outlook of Brian Branch’s Achilles and Kerby Joseph’s knee…