Kerby Joseph has quickly become one of the NFL’s most opportunistic defensive backs. And entering his fourth NFL season, he has the stats to back it up.
Joseph, a third-round pick of the Detroit Lions in 2022, has recorded at least four interceptions in each of his first three NFL seasons, including a league-best nine picks a season ago. It helped the Illinois product earn first-team All-Pro honors for the first time in his career. Additionally, he’s secured a total of 17 interceptions in 49 career NFL games.
Joseph and his teammates feed off seeing each other come up with turnovers.
“When one of my brothers makes a play, we all turn up, we all get an energy boost,” Joseph told reporters after Tuesday’s training camp practice. “And when somebody else makes a play, everyone else is trying to make a play.”
Along with being one of the defense’s best players, he is also one of its leaders entering the 2025 season. It’s a deep unit that allowed the seventh-fewest points (20.1/game) in all of football last season, and Joseph believes it’s full of strengths headed into the upcoming season.
“I view the whole defense as a strength,” Joseph expressed. “I wouldn’t say it’s just the back-end. You know, we’ve got guys like Aidan (Hutchinson), we got guys like Jack (Campbell), we got guys like me, Brian (Branch). There’s guys all over the place, even D.J. (Reed). We’ve got guys all over the place. I wouldn’t say there’s one single strength. You’re only as strong as your weakest link, so I feel like everybody plays a part in winning games and making plays.”
Joseph also believes second-year pro Terrion Arnold is in store for a bigger season in 2025. He’s personally seen the cornerback step up his game “not only physically, but (also) mentally” thus far in camp.
Additionally, Joseph and his Lions defensive back counterparts, like Arnold, have the luxury of going up against one of the NFL’s top receivers on a daily basis: two-time All-Pro Amon-Ra St. Brown. It’s led to some competitive battles in practice, which have only enhanced the defensive backfield’s readiness to take on the league’s best pass-catchers.
“Going against a top receiver (St. Brown) like that, that just makes guys better because what we do here is compete,” Joseph commented. “So, the more you compete, the more you sharpen iron. Iron sharpens iron.”
Joseph and his peers also benefit from facing one of the league’s top passing games in practice each day. Signal-caller Jared Goff and the likes of St. Brown and fellow pass-catchers Sam LaPorta and Jameson Williams present the Lions’ defense with plenty of challenges, including in the deep passing game. Joseph, for one, looks forward to Goff attempting to throw the deep ball against him, as he believes defending it is one of his strengths.
“I feel like this offense, especially in this league nowadays, everybody likes the pass game and the deep ball, and one thing that’s my strength is I take that away,” the All-Pro safety said. “Them trying to go deep on me is also making sure I stay on my toes. It’s (a) team run, but they ain’t going boot, they’re going deep. So just making sure to stay on my toes and stuff.”
