Kerby Joseph on expiring contract: ‘I want to be a lifelong Lion’

Lions safety Kerby Joseph has one more year left on his deal, and it’s clear he’d love to re-sign with the Detroit Lions long-term.

Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph is entering the final year of his rookie contract, and after leading the NFL with nine interceptions in 2024, he’s likely due for a big payday. And you can tell the 24-year-old defender is excited about the idea of a new contract because, during a recent appearance on the Jim Rome Show, Joseph literally started to rub his hands together when Rome brought up the topic of his extension.

“Man, I want to be a lifelong Lion, man,” Joseph said with a smile and a laugh. “I just love Detroit, man. I love the city, I love the people, I love the fans. It’s just everything to be here. When I first came, nobody really knew who I was, but they showed me love.”

Lions general manager Brad Holmes wasn’t asked about the negotiation progress with Joseph’s extension, and he typically doesn’t offer any public updates until a deal is done anyway. But during his NFL Combine press conference, Holmes did mention it in passing, noting how balancing the salary cap will become challenging now that many of his draft picks are reaching the point of possible extensions.

“You just can’t keep everybody,” Holmes said. “I really kinda looked at it after this year that we had the first-round pick in ‘21 that we already rewarded. ‘22 we had two ones. In ‘23 we had two ones. In ‘23, we had two twos that year, too, that we had graded as first-round picks. So that’s like seven first-round picks in total that are all players that, yeah we like them, but then you start adding on the non-first-round picks. The (Amon-Ra) St. Browns that already got rewarded. You’ve got a Kerby Joseph that was a third. You know what I mean? So that starts to add up and you’ve got to make some tough decisions. We’ve already started a lot of that work already in terms of the preparation and planning, forecasting. Because whatever you do this year is going to impact financially the next year after, as well. So there’s a lot of work to do on that front.”

It’s unclear if Joseph will be part of those plans, but one thing is certain. he wants to be part of this franchise.

“I just love the fact that this organization—we didn’t have the best winning reputation, but now that we’re here and I’m here and the team is here, we’re basically coming from the ground up. And I just feel like that’s my whole story about my life,” Joseph said. “Coming from the ground up, bro. Going from zero to 100, I just feel like that’s everything I’m about, so I just love being a part of it.”