With their first-round pick in April's draft, the Detroit Lions reunited college teammates Terrion Arnold and Brian Branch in their secondary. But the part that caused a stir was a photo of Branch will Arnold, and some other photos from draft weekend showing Branch getting around on a scooter with a boot on his left foot.
All of that would seem to suggest Branch had a surgery of some sort after the season. He missed two games during the first half of last season with an ankle injury, but that appeared to be an injury to his right ankle. The excellent rookie season he posted suggested he was operating with no limitations, but he played less than 60 percent of the Lions' defensive snaps in three of the last five regular season games and he played just 41 percent of the defensive snaps in the NFC Championship Game.
Dan Campbell offers update on Brian Branch
Head coach Dan Campbell spoke to the media before OTA practice on Thursday morning. He had a brief, and fairly vague, update on Branch.
It sounds like Branch's left ankle, again not the ankle he injured in Week 4 last season that caused him to miss the following two games and the foot he had a boot on last month, was a thing for a little while. Surgery was a question mark, before the decision was made to get it done. He is expected to be ready at some point during training camp.
Campbell of course listed Branch among a list of players who will be out or limited at practice on Thursday due to injury of personal reasons. We already knew safety Kerby Joseph will be out until training camp after offseason hip surgery. We can also hypothesize about some other likely injury absences/limitations for OTAs.
-Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley is working his way back from a torn ACL.
-Rookie cornerback Ennis Rakestraw was somewhat limited at rookie minicamp, likely related to core muscle surgery last season and a groin issue that truncated his work during combine drills.
-Left tackle Taylor Decker also said he had offseason surgery on his foot and ankle, so he is unlikely to do a whole lot at OTAs.
-Defensive tackle DJ Reader missed the end of last season with the Bengals due to a torn tendon in his right quad.
-While it looked like linebacker Derrick Barnes was on the field earlier this week, he suffered a knee injury in the NFC Championship Game and caution during OTAs is automatic.
-Tight end Sam LaPorta suffered a knee injury in last season's regular season finale.