Every year. Same panic. Same outcome.
The Detroit Lions placed Kerby Joseph on the physically unable to perform list to start training camp and the internet immediately combusted. I get it. Fan is short for fanatic. But this happens every single year with every single team, and the PUP list does not mean what most people think it means.
I am seeing comments asking how much money Detroit could save if they release him. People are jumping to the absolute worst conclusion they can find. So let’s break it down, because there needs to be a bigger understanding of what the PUP list actually is and what it is not.
The PUP list is not a death sentence
It does not mean a player cannot play this season. More often than not, it means one of a few things. The player was injured last year and is not ready to return yet. The player did not pass his conditioning test. Or the player is returning from an injury and the team wants to ease him back in before the grind of the regular season.
There are nearly 50 players across the league on this list right now. It is completely normal.
History says relax
Let me walk you through every Lions player who started training camp on the PUP list under this regime and what happened after that. Because this matters.
In 2021, Austin Bryant was on the PUP list. Bryant played 14 games that season and finished with 4.5 sacks. Pretty good year.
In 2022, Jerry Jacobs started camp on the PUP list and played 12 games. Josh Paschal went on the PUP list and played 10 games. Romeo Okwara was also on the list and played just five games, but he had significant injury history coming into that.
In 2024, Brian Branch started on the PUP list. Branch went on to have a Pro Bowl season. DJ Reader started on the PUP list and played 15 games.
In 2025, Alim McNeill started on the PUP list because he was coming back from a torn ACL. He came back later in the year. Taylor Decker was dealing with a shoulder injury, wound up playing the entire season. Khalil Dorsey played 11 games. Malcolm Rodriguez was coming off his torn ACL from the year before and came back. Mehki Wingo came back before the season even started.
Out of all of those players, the only real concern was Okwara back in 2022. Every other player came off the list and contributed.
What this likely means for Kerby Joseph
Pure speculation on my part, but my guess is that Joseph feels ready to come back and practice immediately. The Lions want to ease him in. The way to do that is to put him on the PUP list for a short while, get him back athletically to the point where he would pass a conditioning test, and then get him on the field.
That could be a week. That could be two weeks. But there is nothing that suggests adding him to the PUP list means his season is in jeopardy.
Players and teams being on different timelines is a tale as old as time.
Everybody just needs to calm down
Every year, Lions fans freak out about the PUP list. Every year, two or three weeks later, nobody even remembers it happened because the players come off the list and get back to work.
The internet doctors are not right just because a player landed on the PUP list. This proves absolutely nothing.
History is on the Lions’ side here. Let’s see how the next couple weeks play out.
