The Kansas City Chiefs love a good reclamation project, and one of their latest is already making a strong impression during Organized Team Activities (OTAs).
The Chiefs signed CB Kelvin Joseph to a reserve/future contract in January after his practice squad contract with the Seattle Seahawks elapsed. A former second-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys back in 2021, Joseph has since made stops with the Miami Dolphins and the Seahawks as mentioned above.
He has 31 career games played and three starts under his belt, logging 39 total tackles, one tackle for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and four passes defended in his NFL career. That veteran experience is already helping Joseph see the field early during OTAs for Kansas City, and he's taking full advantage.
Former Cowboys CB Kelvin Joseph making early noise at Chiefs' OTAs
On Wednesday's first play of 7-on-7 during practice, Joseph caught Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes pushing the limits. The play resulted in an interception for Joseph, who has worked almost exclusively with the second-team defense to this point of the offseason. However, it's important to remember that workouts are voluntary at this point and players often jump around based on who is in attendance.
Still, there was a lot of positive buzz about Joseph coming out of the lone day of practice media have been able to attend thus far. Chiefs team reporter Matt McMullen mentioned his interception in his post-practice observations. KSHB-TV's Nick Jacobs and Chiefs Digest's Matt Derrick also discussed Joseph as a standout during practice on their "41 Is The Mic" podcast.
"A very sneaky-good player was Kelvin Joseph," Jacobs said. "Like the guy was all over all over 7-on-7 and team, and he had a lot of deflections and was in good position a lot of the times. And he made that interception on Mahomes."
Cowboys fans often regard Joseph as a draft bust because he didn't live up to his second-round draft status. If he can continue to show this type of coverage skill and ability with consistency, he'll certainly be in the mix for a post-L'Jarius Sneed secondary in Kansas City. One thing that could potentially help him out even more? Special teams ability.
"Joseph is a guy that's gonna push for, he's gonna push for a roster spot," Jacobs continued. "Like, if he continues to build up off of what he did yesterday, he's gonna push for a roster spot. And then I'll be curious, down the road, when training camp rolls around, can he do stuff on special teams?"
Jacobs thinks Joseph will directly compete with veteran S Deon Bush for a spot on the roster or practice squad, especially if he plays special teams. It's possible that he could even push some of these young cornerbacks like Nic Jones and Ekow Boye-Doe for playing time as both a special teamer and perimeter cornerback.
