Kerby Joseph Makes Middle of Field 'Scary Place'

Lions seeing benefits of improved safeties unit.

Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph (31) celebrates after intercepting a pass against the Seattle Seahawks / Eamon Horwedel-Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions have seen benefits of pairing safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch on the back end of their secondary.

Heading into the 2024 season, the coaching staff challenged Joseph to improve in man coverage and to embrace a leadership role, given the several young players on defense.

"I think he’s always been outstanding in the deep part of the field," defensive assistant Jim O'Neil told reporters Tuesday before practice. "The biggest improvement that I see from him is, one, I think his communication has been outstanding for the back seven. We talked a lot this offseason about, great safeties just aren’t great players. Great safeties make people around them better.

O'Neil, who is an assistant that focuses on working with the safeties, has seen marked improvement from the third-year defender. Joseph has mixed up his alignments this season, as he has played 111 snaps as a free safety and 102 snaps in the box.

"I think he’s embraced that. I think he’s done a really good job communicating with the back-end guys, especially with how young we are. I think his strike, when he’s down in the box, has improved, the way we strike blockers and get off," O'Neil continued. "I think his tackling has improved this year compared to last year, and I think his man coverage has improved. The last two games, he’s climbed down and he’s played man coverage on tight ends and wide receivers and done a pretty good job. So when it comes to him, that’s what I see.” 

Detroit's talented safety has been making life difficult for starting quarterbacks, since he was drafted back in 2022 in the third round. He has 11 career interceptions, and has produced well this season to the tune of an 83.8 overall defensive Pro Football Focus grade.

More than just a ball-hawk, Joseph has earned a 78.5 run defense PFF grade to go along with an 80.7 coverage grade.

“Kerby makes the middle of the field a scary place. From going and attacking the ball and also, usually most safeties don’t have both. They usually don’t make it scary on quarterbacks, ball’s in the air and he’s gonna go get it, and then they make it scary on ball carriers where he’s gonna knock the hell out of them," said O'Neil. "And he’s one of the few that I’ve been around that possesses both those characteristics. I have full trust in him. Two-minute drill, I know if they’ve got to take chunk plays, throw the ball downfield, Kerby’s gonna come down with one. He should probably have one or two more on the season and he knows that.”

Lions Lone Wolves Video Podcast
--Talking NFL Locker Room Controversy
--It's Not All Bad
--A Fair Solution Offered #Podcast #NFL #NFLPA #DetroitLions pic.twitter.com/CevGLXFlrX

— DetroitSportsPodcast (@DetroitPodcast) October 5, 2024

Ability to track the ball

Part of the reason the front office found the former Illinois defensive back appealing was his ball-hawking abilities displayed at the collegiate level.

O'Neill compared Joseph to a number of the talented defenders he's worked with based on his unique ability to be a threat both in coverage and as a tackler.

"I’ve been around a lot of good ones. I think Kerby’s different. I’ve been around Tashaun Gipson, Donte Whitner, Jimmy Leonhard, LaRon Landry. I’ve been around some good players, everybody’s unique, everybody’s different," said O'Neil. "But like I said, very few guys have the ability to go track the ball like he does in the deep part of the field but also be as aggressive as he can and take the angles, the violent angles that he takes, whether it’s a slant route or a running back pop. That’s rare, and that’s fun to coach.” 

Elevated expectations

The 23-year-old has high expectations for himself, including leading the league in interceptions.

This season, Joseph has recorded three interceptions, including against Matthew Stafford, Kyler Murray and Geno Smith.

“He knows that his superpower is playing in the deep part of the field. When you’re known for being a deep safety, you’re really evaluated on your ball production," said "O'Neil. "So, I’m sure he wants to get his hands on the ball every single game, and the expectation is that he should get his hands on the ball every game with the way A.G. (Aaron Glenn) calls it and the way A.G. puts those guys in position to make plays.

"It would not shock me at all if his goal was double digits or something like that. That’s just who he is, he sets high expectations of himself.”