In this installment of our Detroit Lions 2026 training camp preview series, we wrap up the defensive side of the ball by examining the Lions’ safeties, speculating on current and future roles, and discussing how many players from this group could make the 53-man roster.
Previous training camp previews:
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Roster construction
Under the Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell regime, the Lions have maintained a fairly consistent roster of safeties, typically keeping four or five safeties on the active roster. Let’s take a look at what they’ve done at safety in the previous five seasons:
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2021: Opened the season with four safeties but ended up with six at season’s close.
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2022: Started and ended the season with five safeties.
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2023: Started and ended the season with just four safeties.
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2024: Started with five safeties on the roster but operated and ended with four.
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2025: Opened with five safeties, fluctuated as high as six mid-season to deal with injuries, then ended with only four.
Overcoming injuries
The Lions entered 2025 with the best safety tandem in the NFL, with Brian Branch earning a spot in the Pro Bowl and Kerby Joseph coming off an All-Pro season. Unfortunately, Branch would suffer a torn Achilles in December, and Joseph failed to see the field after six games due to a lingering knee injury. The Lions turned to their depth for the majority of the season, with Thomas Harper and Avonte Maddox proving to be the steadiest contributors.
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This offseason, with Branch and Joseph’s statuses in question, the Lions secured a lot of safeties in the offseason with the plan of letting them battle it out for roles. Harper returns to Detroit for the third season on his rookie contract, and they re-signed Maddox, then added Christian Izien and Chuck Clark in free agency. Additionally, 2025 seventh-round pick Dan Jackson is returning from injury, practice squader Loren Strickland was re-signed, and rookie UDFA Aamaris Brown was added following the conclusion of the NFL Draft.
There’s a chance Joseph will be able to overcome his knee injury to start the season, and Branch will quickly return to form once he fully recovers from injury, but until they have better answers, the Lions will open up their options in one of the most competitive training camp battles of 2026.
The battleground
Latest injury updates for Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph
Branch is more than likely going to start training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, and if he remains on the list at the start of the regular season, he’d have to miss the first four games of the season, at a minimum. Coach Dan Campbell said it’s still unclear if Branch will take that route, and declined to put a timetable on his return (he joked “December” so that the media would stop asking him), but he did also note that there have been “no setbacks” and that Branch is “putting in the work” to be ready as soon as possible.
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Things are even less clear for Joseph. His lingering knee problems are not something that can be fixed by surgery, and instead will need to be managed by him and the team throughout the season. In addition to allowing the knee to rest and recover this offseason, Joseph has worked with the team through a variety of different rehabilitation/treatment efforts, with the overarching plan being “not push this until we absolutely have to,” according to Campbell.
The slow push forward has been designed to strengthen his knee, so that when it comes time to test it, he’ll be as prepared as possible—which may be sooner than most anticipated.
On Saturday, Joseph offered some reassurances surrounding his health, taking to social media and suggesting that he will avoid starting training camp on the PUP list, meaning he’ll be able to practice as soon as he feels ready. How much and when the Lions test Joseph’s knee will be something the team figures out as camp progresses, but this is certainly a step in the right direction toward him finding the field in 2026.
Assessing the potential challengers to start
Because Joseph’s knee is still being assessed, the Lions will likely enter training camp believing they will need at least one, if not two, safeties to step into starting roles for Week 1. Let’s take a closer look at the players most likely challenging for the starting roles and what they need to show in camp to earn a spot.
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Thomas Harper (nine starts for Lions in 2025, 14 career) was released by the Raiders at cutdowns and claimed by the Lions in 2025. When Joseph proved unable to play, Harper was the first player coaches turned to, and he stepped into the starting single-high safety role in Week 7. When Branch went down in December, Maddox was promoted to the starting lineup, but coaches preferred him at single-high, and Harper showed his range by shifting to the other safety spot.
With the experience and range to play both of the Lions’ safety spots, Harper’s biggest obstacle to a starting role is likely his overall NFL experience. Still only in his third season as a pro, Harper is still developing his game, but if he can show consistency in camp, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Lions turn to him again.
Avonte Maddox (three starts for Lions in 2025, 44 career) has the positional range to play both safety spots, as well as in the slot, and provided a young Lions secondary with veteran leadership last season. Maddox meshed immediately with the Lions roster, with several giving him high praise in a recent video posted by the Lions social media team, including labeling him a leader, intelligent, smart, a playmaker, energy, a dawg, stud, and the ever-affectionate “unc.”
For Maddox to make the 53-man roster and challenge for a starting role, he’ll need to prove that his skills are not redundant to other safeties on the roster, or that he is the better option. For example, his veteran leadership will surely be compared to Clark, while Maddox’s positional range will look very similar to Izien.
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Christian Izien (one start for Bucs in 2025, 15 career) was a starter for the Bucs in 2024, but was passed over in 2025, and he’s hoping a fresh start in Detroit will get him back in the starting lineup in 2026. With experience playing all five spots in the secondary and on five phases on special teams, Izien is a hungry, young player who is incredibly valuable to have on a 53-man roster.
With Izien’s experience and versatility, he feels like a near lock for the roster, but how far he climbs up the depth chart will depend on his performance in training camp. The Lions put him in a starting role in OTAs/Minicamp in order to get him exposed to the Lions’ scheme and up to speed quickly. He’ll need to show coaches that he has retained what he learned in the spring and can grow even further. The potential is there for Izien to jump to the top of the chart, but he’ll need to show he can keep pace with players who have already been in the system for a season.
Chuck Clark (five starts for the Steelers in 2025, 80 career) brings a load of experience to the Lions roster, and safeties coach Jim O’Neil noted in the spring that the veteran was an “alpha communicator” in the secondary. Like Izien, Clark was dropped into the starting lineup in the spring to help him acclimate quickly to the Lions’ scheme.
For Clark, a path to the Lions roster hinges on his ability to keep pace physically with the younger players on the roster, despite being 31 years old and nearing the end of his career. Last season, he struggled to defend the pass, and several of his statistics declined from previous seasons. He’ll need to show that the skills that made him great in Baltimore are still there.
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Could a young special teamer disrupt the depth chart?
While the Lions have several safeties battling it out for roles, it’s important to recognize that safety is a position where a great special teamer can absolutely beat out a good defender on a team that rosters multiple players.
Dan Jackson showed promise and growth last training camp/preseason, but a late camp injury forced him to spend his rookie season on injured reserve. Fortunately, he’s expected to be healthy and ready to compete in training camp. This room is much deeper than last year, so he’ll have a tougher path to the roster, but his ability to be an impact player on special teams could earn him a SAF5 role.
Loren Strickland is entering his third season with the Lions, and while he spent last season on the practice squad, he’s been retained for multiple years for a reason. We’ve seen growth from him as a defender, but his most impactful plays have typically come on special teams, which could be his path to the roster in 2026.
