Kerby Joseph Knee Injury Tweetstorm Analysis
Joseph offers up some comments and insight into his knee injury
Kerby Joseph (@ZUPE31) lit up Twitter/X over the past couple days. This was after he had implied that he wouldn’t be on the PUP list… and then ended up on the list. See my previous story for the original tweets…
What happened next was a flurry of Kerby tweets responding to many fans who were confused and miffed about how it all played out. He also had some comments about his knee that provide a little bit more insight into what’s going on.
Here are some of Kerby’s most illuminating and provocative tweets along with my analysis.
It’s possible that Kerby truly didn’t know for sure whether he was going to be placed on PUP. Maybe he thought he was not going to go on PUP, but the Lions made the final decision to put him on PUP.
If this is what happened, it doesn’t really affect anything. He would be limited and load-managed throughout camp anyway. So missing some time at the start of camp vs later in camp doesn’t make any difference.
Brian Branch was my #1 most likely candidate to go on PUP, and thus his placement on PUP was not a surprise and not a sign of a setback. The big difference here is that Branch did not get fans’ hopes up that he would not go on PUP. In fact, Branch has been very quiet throughout his Achilles rehab process.
The most we’ve seen of him is a brief promo rehab video that I addressed in this story: Mailbag & June 2026 Rehab Updates for Alim McNeill, Kerby Joseph, & Brian Branch.
Yes, players get paid on PUP. Here is the quote from NFL.com: “Players on the PUP list are paid their entire base salary. A player's contract will not be tolled (meaning the contract will not be suspended and resumed the following season) while on the PUP, unless he is in the last year of his deal and he is both not able to perform football services as of the sixth regular season game and is not activated during that regular season or postseason.”
Thus, from a financial and salary cap standpoint, PUP doesn’t impact Joseph or the Lions.
My concern since Dan Campbell’s revelatory press conference in November 2025 was for articular cartilage damage. This damage is often described as “arthritic” or “degenerative”, and can cause pain, swelling, and disability.
Kerby describes having severe pain during the Kansas City game - his final appearance of the season. He also implies that he hasn’t been able to even walk without discomfort in the past. It’s good to hear that the pain has resolved at this point, and he is able to walk without much, if any, discomfort. A big reason for that is because he hasn’t stressed his joint with high-impact activities in many months.
The looming question is whether the pain will return once he starts football activities.