The Las Vegas Raiders welcomed back a familiar face with the addition of safety Karl Joseph in free agency this offseason.
Joseph was a former first-round pick for the Raiders back in 2016. His first stint with the team came to an end after they used another first-round pick to bring in safety Johnathan Abram.
Joseph spent the 2020 campaign with the Cleveland Browns before making his return this offseason. This time, it will be Abram showing him the ropes on all the changes that have been made since then.
The safety room has gotten crowded with your talent leading up to the 2021 NFL season. Abram feels Joseph’s veteran experience should help pay some major dividends.
“It means a lot. One of the things I appreciate about Karl the most is he’s a pro through and through, day in and day out,” Abram said. “One of the first in and probably the last out. For me, that’s something that I look up to. Especially because my first year, me and him were roommates. Just seeing how he went about his business, being a pro, I feel like he can teach the younger guys and that’s the role he’s kind of taken on. Helping a lot of guys, being more of a resource than anything. I feel like that’s what we need with having a young secondary. Trying to get all these young guys out here with this new defense and everything. They came from this system last year, it was pretty similar to Cleveland, just with different terminology. He’s helping us as well.”
There is certainly plenty of truth to Abram’s comments regarding the state of the secondary. The Raiders have ushered in quite the youth movement after they used a second-round pick on safety Trevon Moehrig and a fourth-round pick to take safety Tyree Gillespie in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Although some players could see the addition of three new safeties as a slight, Abram is relishing at the prospect of these rookies learning from Joseph like he did when he first entered the league. After all, he will be primarily tasked with leading a potential resurgence over the top and will need to continue making strides in his development in order to do so.
The Raiders’ defense has a busy offseason ahead of them if they hope to get quickly acclimated with coordinator Gus Bradley’s new approach. This will require Abram, Joseph, and the new rookies to adapt to Bradley’s heavy Cover-3 scheme.
