While it’s not yet official thanks to coronavirus-related hangups, Karl Joseph will be one of the new starting safeties for the Cleveland Browns in 2020. The team agreed to terms with the former Raiders first-rounder on Wednesday night.
Here are a few things to know about Joseph:
He was an iron man in college
It’s difficult to track total snaps with the box scoring and variations in stat-keeping across different colleges and times, but Joseph was a true iron man during his college days at West Virginia. Joseph played over 1,000 snaps in each of his first three seasons for the Mountaineers, starting every game and playing almost every snap all three years.
Joseph played every snap of the first four games of his senior season (2015) before suffering a knee injury in practice. He led the NCAA in both tackles and interceptions at the time of his injury.
He gives back to Haiti
Joseph was born and raised in Orlando, but his parents are both natives of Haiti. He has made several trips to his ancestral homeland and has close ties to the Haitian community.
He and fellow NFLer Cliff Avril did a mission trip to Haiti to help build public restrooms as well as to conduct a football camp for kids back in 2018.
Joseph hits HARD
At West Virginia he quickly developed a reputation as a devastating hitter. There are several video montages of his biggest hits available on YouTube.
In this particular one, check out the hit at the 1:55 mark against Oklahoma…
Despite the hard-hitting reputation, he was never once flagged for targeting in college.
He’s a budding fashion critic
Joseph had a lot of fun joining the Raiders’ video crew in breaking down the fashion choices of his teammates. The detail in which he goes on some of the choices shows a true dedication to looking sharp…or not.
The video ends with Joseph pictured balancing on a hoverboard with a giant duffel bag while wearing an exotic get-up. He’s clearly having fun with it.
He made two game-saving plays for the Raiders in 2019
Joseph made plays on the ball in crunch time to preserve two separate wins for the Raiders last year. In consecutive weeks, no less…
The first came against Detroit, where he leaped over 6-foot-6 TE Logan Thomas to break up a 4th-down pass in the end zone on the game’s final play. The Raiders won by 7.
Joseph one-upped himself just one week later against the Chargers. With Los Angeles down two and driving into Raiders territory, Joseph picked off Philip Rivers with under 30 seconds play.
These 2 plays by new Brown Karl Joseph sealed 2 big wins for the #Raiders last season #Browns pic.twitter.com/9uCF2epc9Z
— MoreForYouCleveland (@MoreForYou_CLE) March 19, 2020
Welcome to Cleveland, Karl Joseph!