The good: The Lions came into 2025 with arguably the best safety duo in the NFL in All-Pro Kerby Joseph and Pro Bowler Brian Branch manning the deep part of Kelvin Sheppard's defense. The duo started the year strong as Joseph recorded three interceptions in Detroit's first six games with Branch notching 33 tackles and five passes defended as Detroit got off to a 4-2 start.

Unfortunately, six games are all we got to see out of the duo as Joseph was lost for the rest of the season with a knee injury. Branch tore his achilles Week 14 against Dallas.

Detroit's depth as safety was tested with Thomas Harper making nine starts, Avonte Maddox three, and Erick Hallett and Daniel Thomas each starting two games.

Maddox's ability to play both cornerback and safety was big for Detroit this season. Harper is a player who looks to have some upside.

Overall it was a very good tackling back seven for Detroit with the safety position being a big part of that as the Lions allowed the second fewest yards after the catch in 2025 with 1,539 behind only Buffalo's 1,376.

The bad: The injuries to Joseph and Branch were impactful because Sheppard gives his safeties a lot of freedom to make plays and getting only six games from those two playing together was a big loss.

Branch tore his achilles Dec. 4 and that's typically a 9-to-12-month recovery time post-surgery depending on the person. That puts his availability for the start of the 2026 season in question. Joseph developed a knee injury in training camp and aggravated it early in the season.

Detroit's safeties allowed nine touchdowns in their coverage area this season: Joseph (2), Branch (2), Harper (2), Maddox (2) and Thomas (1), per Pro Football Reference stats.

Detroit was one of 10 teams this season to allow a 100-plus passer rating (109.4) on passes thrown 21-plus yards in the air. Detroit allowed the most passing yards in the league on such passes (1,041) with nine touchdowns and three interceptions.

It's a good metric to show what the loss of Joseph and Branch meant for the back part of Detroit's defense as last season that rating on passes of 21-plus yards was just 76.1 with four touchdowns allowed and four interceptions.

Key stat: Opponents converted on 3rd & long (six yards or more) 27.4 percent of the time, which ranked 23rd in the NFL. Opponents faced 3rd & 10 or longer 58 times this season and converted 16 for a 26.7 percentage. Only Cincinnati (29.8) and Carolina (31.0) allowed a higher percentage on those third-down plays.

Free agents: Maddox (unrestricted), Jalen Mills (unrestricted), Thomas (unrestricted)

Maddox turned out to be one of the better free agent signings last offseason for general manager Brad Holmes. The Lions like versatility on their roster and Maddox's experience and ability to play both cornerback and safety was huge. Maddox turns 30 in March but could be a good re-signing for depth at both safety and cornerback.

There are question marks about Joesph's long-term health and how Branch will come back from a major injury. Holmes said after the season he expects Joseph to be able to play in 2026 with time, rehab and treatment this offseason. It still seems likely the Lions could add a veteran and youngster to the mix at safety.

There is a pretty large and experienced group of safeties scheduled to become free agents this spring including Coby Bryant (Seattle), Kamren Curl (Los Angeles), Jaylinn Hawkins (New England), Bryan Cook (Kansas City), Julian Blackmon (New Orleans), Alohi Gilman (Baltimore) and Donovan Wilson (Dallas) to name a few.

Draft: Ohio State's Caleb Downs is the best safety in the 2026 NFL Draft but he is projected to go in the top 10. The Lions are currently selecting No. 17. Some names to consider later in the first round and into Day 2 of the draft include Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (Toledo), Dillon Thieneman (Oregon), Kyle Louis (Pittsburgh), A.J. Haulcy (LSU), Kamari Ramsey (USC) and Zakee Wheatley (Penn State).

Quotable: "Kerby really wanted to be out there. Kerby, he earned that extension. I knew how excited he was. I feel like he's already shown the world the type of player he is," Holmes said after the season.

"But now that he got the extension, I feel like he really wanted to show the world why he got that extension. Obviously, he had some things that he had to deal with physically. What became hard was you're trying to urgently get healthy enough to play during the season, and that's really the reason why we waited so long to put him on IR because he was making strides of progress during the season where, 'Maybe another week, maybe in two weeks.'

"I'm just glad Kerby's in a spot now where he's not urgently trying to get healthy. He's going to have the necessary time to get the rehab and treatment that he needs to get as healthy as he can."