Detroit Lions Top Safeties Active Against Chiefs

The Detroit Lions will have their top two safeties available against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph were both questionable ahead of the key road contest on Sunday Night Football. The team released their official inactives list and the back end will have both starting safeties availabe to work against the Chiefs' offense.

The Chiefs announced before the game that left tackle Josh Simmons was downgraded and would not be available against the NFC North division leader.

With Taylor Decker not available, the team is expected to turn to Dan Skipper to play at left tackle.

Offensive coordinator John Morton was asked this week the biggest difference from playing left tackle versus right tackle and if the left side is more valuable to protect.

“I mean back in the day it used to be like that, but now you see these defensive ends, they go on the other side. But that’s the blind side of the quarterback. You’ve got a right-handed quarterback, so yeah, you want to make sure that side is protected well," said Morton. You’ve got to ask Dan (Campbell) the question about who’s going to be there, but it’s important to protect the blind side of the quarterback.

"We did a good job with that last week. Whether you’re sliding over there, or whether you’re chipping over there, you have to do that. You might have to get the ball out a little bit faster," Morton added. "So, I think that’s important. You don’t want them sitting back there and waiting for someone to get open. With this defense, you can’t do that. And last week we were on schedule, we didn’t have many third downs. It was first second, first second, short fields, and we were scoring. So, I think that helped big time.”

Detroit's offense is one of the best in the league, but first year defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has shown plenty of aptitude in his role. Under his watch, the Lions have gotten surprising production from the pass rush and a flurry of takeaways defensively.

Sheppard expressed gratitude for words from head coach Dan Campbell, and noted that the defense has been carrying heavier expectations after a strong stretch during a chat with Fox-2 Detroit.

"I take great pride in honoring those words, it's very humbling hearing the head man Dan say that the team's leaning on the defense and depending on it," Sheppard said. "Truth be told, we know that's not what it's been in Detroit since we arrived. We've been an offense driven team and that's good too, but the defensive players, defensive coaches, you want to hear your coach, the players — to hear Goff say, 'That's my defense.' That feeds the team, that feeds the energy into the team, knowing that these guys at this point are expecting us to get three takeaways a game. It raises the bar for us as a defense, making sure that we live up to the expectations we've set as a defense."

Lions' 2025 Week 6 inactive list