Healthy Joseph could be a big hit
The Raiders’ defense is still a work in progress in head coach Jack Del Rio’s third season, but there have been a couple of positive developments to take out of training camp and Saturday’s preseason opener.
A big one, figuratively if not literally, is Karl Joseph, and the safety got everyone’s attention with a big hit on Arizona running back David Johnson.
For one night, anyway, he looked to be the player he was advertised to be when the Raiders drafted him in the first round last year. Joseph was coming off knee surgery, didn’t get a running start and then was slowed by a foot injury.
This year, he is running through the preseason as if it were a ball carrier, determined to make an impact on a defense
that was ranked 26th last season.
“It’s fun to get to hit somebody else in the first preseason game,” Joseph said. “There’s definitely a lot of room for improvement. We’re nowhere where we want to be yet, but it was fun to get out there and get to be physical.”
That’s Joseph’s game, even if he doesn’t initially strike you as an enforcer at 5-foot-10, 205 pounds.
“That’s what he is,” Del Rio said. “He is a guy that strikes people. There is a certain amount of that you got to see (Saturday). We expect to get that kind of thing from Karl.”
Joseph had three tackles, one for a loss, in a half of play against the Cardinals. He also showed some of the range in the secondary that led him to coming down with five interceptions in four games his senior year at West Virginia.
Raiders fans didn’t see that Joseph last season, he said. Completely healthy, Joseph felt a lot different athletically in Saturday’s game than he did last year.
“Definitely,” Joseph said. “I felt like I was a lot more confident in what I was doing and where I was moving. I wasn’t thinking about it and I wasn’t hesitating. It felt good to be out there. It’s the first preseason game, so we knocked some of the dust off of the defense.”
Joseph has also been working with veteran safety Reggie Nelson and new assistant coach John Pagano on where his eyes should be before, during and after the offense snaps the ball.
“That’s part of growing,” Joseph said. “I still make mistakes, but I think I’m definitely a lot more comfortable than I was last year in being able to see the whole field and being able to process everything a little faster.”
Joseph wasn’t the only safety who looked good Saturday. Rookie Shalom Luani, a seventh-round pick from Washington State, had five tackles and just missed a leaping interception in the end zone.
“Shalom did a nice job,” Del Rio said. “He got a lot of snaps. He is a really instinctive young man, kind of a ball magnet, just finds the ball . ... He did some things on special teams that were pretty good, too, so he’s one of those young players that you’re excited about developing.”