The Detroit Lions have their most important game of the season so far on Sunday, hosting the undefeated Minnesota Vikings. After a slow start to the season, the Lions have built some positive momentum. A big reason for this has been the defensive improvement. In Week 7, they owed a lot of this improvement to Brian Branch's return.
It was impressive to see Branch looking as good as he did after a long recovery. One has to imagine that he will continue to get better as the weeks progress, which is a great sign for the Lions' outlook going forward. In fact, head coach Dan Campbell teased that Branch may be fully unleashed in Week 8.
No more snap count for Brian Branch in Week 8
Talking to the press on Friday, Campbell said he doesn't need to be conservative with Branch's snap counts going forward, according to team insider Nolan Bianchi. He added, "Now he's ready." This suggests that Branch will be out there without any limitations.
Last week, Branch played 45 out of 67 defensive snaps. He was excellent in those snaps, including the huge interception. He led the team in coverage grade on Pro Football Focus.
In contrast, fellow starting safety Chuch Clark played 55 defensive snaps. The rest of the safety snaps went to rookie Keith Abney. He wasn't particularly effective in the 34 snaps he played, especially compared to his Week 5 performance against the Cardinals. Given that he is still learning the ins and outs of a new position, this is understandable.
We can expect Branch to play as many snaps as he can handle on Sunday. Before he suffered the season-ending Achilles injury in 2025, he was playing 96% of defensive snaps. The season before, in his Pro Bowl campaign, Branch played over 91% of defensive snaps for the team.
If Branch is back to essentially playing every snap, this could signal the end of the Abney at safety experiment. Clark has been playing very well since the start of the season. So, Campbell and defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard could rely on the Clark-Branch pairing going forward, at least until Kerby Joseph is back.
If the Lions lose on Sunday, there will be a three-game difference between them and the Vikings. The path to winning the NFC North will be a challenging one. Having Branch back without a snap count will go a long way toward getting this crucial win on Sunday.
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