Star Lions rookie Brian Branch carted to locker room with leg injury

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Detroit’s big night has come at a steep cost.

Star rookie Brian Branch has been carted to the locker room with an ankle injury. His return is officially questionable, but given the pain he was in just getting off the field, it’s hard to imagine him running back out of that tunnel.

At this point, the Lions will just have to hope they see him again soon.

Branch has been one of the breakout stars of the young season, including scoring on a game-turning pick-six in his first career game against Kansas City. He’s the first Lions player to score on a pick-six in his NFL debut since Lem Barney in 1967. Then he enjoyed his best game yet on Sunday, when he racked up 11 tackles, three tackles for loss and two passes defended in the win against Atlanta. He’s the first NFL defensive back with that kind of line since 1994.

On Thursday night, he was leading Detroit in tackling (five) when he went down, plus broke up a third-down pass for Christian Watson.

Simply put, he’s gone from one of the biggest draft-day slides to an early leader for defensive rookie of the year. He’s been Detroit’s most consistent defender of the year, and perhaps even its best.

“He really stepped up,” head coach Dan Campbell said. “And I’ve said this, he gets better every practice. Every day he gets a little bit better.”

Will Harris has replaced Branch at slot cornerback against Green Bay.