Dan Campbell Week 2 Lions OTA Updates: Kerby Joseph, Kendrick Law, & more
Diving into Campbell's major injury revelations & reader comments
Dan Campbell had a press conference on June 4, 2026 that featured significant injury updates on Kerby Joseph, Kendrick Law, and DJ Reed. But let’s start with his comments on Jahmyr Gibbs…
Jahmyr Gibbs utilization for 2026 season
He’s going to be our bellcow now. He became more of that last year. We’re going to hang our hat on him quite a bit.
We’re going to put a lot on his plate.
While there is no question that Gibbs is a special talent and the most explosive RB on the roster, my concern lies with over-utilization. Gibbs has been remarkably healthy in his 3-year NFL career, having missed just two games with a hamstring. Spreading out the snap counts will help keep things that way. Isiah Pacheco will be counted on as RB 2, but he has a significant injury history.
It was good to hear new offensive coordinator, Drew Petzing, acknowledge the injury concern with over-utilization earlier this offseason.
Hopefully, Petzing and Campbell are on the same page here.
Kendrick Law suffers ACL tear on June 2, 2026
Dan Campbell delivered the bad news on Law in his press conference.
Law had been featured many times in pictures on the Lions official website, so this news was a surprise stunner. Looking on the bright side, the timing of his ACL gives him a very good chance to be available at 2027 OTA and will definitely have him as a full-go for training camp - barring a very unlikely Jermod McCoy knee situation.
Last year, Alim McNeill returned in about 10 months from his ACL, while Malcolm Rodriguez had a follow-up surgery that delayed his ACL return to 12 months.
Can’t blame the Lions for this one as Law has been with the team just a couple months doing basic workouts.
In fact, the Lions had zero ACL tears in the 2025 season…
DJ Reed hamstring recovery
For spring, I like where he’s at. He’s moving well and that’s encouraging coming off what he did.
That was a pretty significant hamstring he came back from, but I like the way he looks running around right now.
Reed didn’t quite look like his previous self after returning from his moderate-severe hamstring that cost him six games. With a full offseason to ramp-up, Reed should regain his form.
Dan Campbell’s comments on Kerby Joseph’s knee status
I don’t know. I honestly do not know.
We are trying to be as smart as we can and not push this until we absolutely have to. Because once we’ve done that, we’ll know one way or another.
We probably won’t know until we get into the thick of training camp.
For the detailed analysis of what might be going on with Joseph’s knee, start here…
Here are the key takeaways from Dan Campbell’s statements, which are further confirmation of my concerns from the beginning:
Joseph has yet to fully test the knee, which is why Campbell says he doesn’t know anything for sure. This strategy makes total sense for a wear-and-tear cartilage issue, as I’ve noted many times throughout OTA. There is no value in wasting knee mileage during the offseason.
Unless releasing Kerby this offseason was a consideration for salary cap purposes, there isn’t much point to fully testing the knee until close to the regular season. Give the knee as much rest as possible and pray that it can start handling football activities again.
However, this all assumes that Joseph’s knee is currently asymptomatic with low-level, non-football activities. Joseph may be the only one who has knowledge of this information. If his knee is currently symptomatic, then we have a good idea of how things will go once he fully tests his knee.
What treatments did Kerby Joseph try this offseason?
He’s done everything he can do to this point. He’s done some of these different things in different places.
I’m not going to get into all that.
Campbell offered no specifics on treatment. But it can be assumed that there was no surgical repair/patch performed, which would entail a long multi-month recovery.
This reader is referring to osteochondral allograft (cadaver) or autograft (patient’s own) transplantation, which is a surgical procedure to patch the damaged cartilage with cartilage from elsewhere. There are many reasons why this procedure may not be advisable such as diffuse, generalized cartilage loss or advanced arthritis.
What should we expect in training camp for Kerby Joseph?
Training camp will be about 10 months since Joseph’s last football game on October 12, 2025. That’s more than enough time for “rest/recovery” of a cartilage issue. Anything that could be done, has been done already. If Joseph’s knee flares up after a single practice like it did in December of last year, then that likely signals the end of Joseph’s career. This is what Campbell means when he says “we’ll know one way or another”.
Maybe Joseph tries to tough it out for a little while, but the knee is only going to get worse with playing football. For the sake of his long-term joint health, it would be wise to retire.
Should the Lions have tried to get some answers on Joseph earlier?
If there was a significant salary cap benefit to releasing Joseph this offseason, I think the Lions would have wanted Joseph to test the knee and get some answers earlier.
Since Joseph had just signed his extension in 2025, the salary cap savings may not have been worth it, and the dead cap hit would be oppressive - a whopping $29 million. Although, there was a 2026 option bonus of $9.6M that the Lions maybe could have saved if they released Joseph earlier.
Via Spotrac…
The Lions might have viewed Joseph as a sunk cost for the 2026 season, meaning there wasn’t much reason from a financial perspective to get early answers.
From a roster perspective, I agree that there might have been a benefit to knowing early. However, based on how pessimistic Dan Campbell has appeared in his press conferences, the Lions have already been planning for a future without Kerby. In free agency, the Lions signed multiple veteran safety options - Chuck Clark, Avonte Maddox, Christian Izien.
If the Lions had a 3rd-round pick in the 2026 draft, that may have been a safety selection. Brad Holmes acknowledged he was in the market for a safety in his post-draft press conference…
What is a possible outcome for Kerby Joseph?
Yes, a “medical retirement” similar to what we saw with Jahvid Best and his concussions is a likely outcome if things don’t go well in training camp.
Contractually, Joseph would not retire though. If Joseph just can’t play anymore, the Lions would probably be forced to release him, allowing Joseph to keep all his bonus money. In this situation, I don’t think the Lions would have any claim to clawback money, like they did with Barry Sanders, Calvin Johnson, and Frank Ragnow.
When Kerby’s knee was not able to handle a single practice last December after having rested for two months, I was highly concerned that 2026 would be his final year. Hopefully, the extended rest for Joseph will allow him to continue his career at his formerly high level - even if it’s just on a part-time basis.
Exploring the idea of a Kerby Joseph snap count limitation to help get him through the season…