Brandon Joseph Has An Underwhelming Scouting Combine Performance

It was a day to forget at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine for Notre Dame safety Brandon Joseph

There was a lot of excitement when former Northwestern All-American safety Brandon Joseph opted to transfer to Notre Dame for the 2022 season. He was expected to bring playmaking ability, football intelligence and plenty of ball skills.

Unfortunately for Joseph and the Irish program, he went through a season full of injury and inconsistent play. Now Joseph has his eyes set for the 2023 NFL Draft.

He is in need of a big draft process. Joseph spent this week in Indianapolis for the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine in hopes of impressing NFL teams on site, ending with the on-field work on Friday.

BUZZ AROUND JOSEPH

Following his redshirt freshman campaign in 2020, there was legitimate first round hype for Joseph. At the very least, he looked like a player who would be valued in the top 50 picks with his combination of smoothness and ball hawk skills. 

With two underwhelming years, including an injury riddled one in 2022 with Notre Dame, this draft process was incredibly important for Joseph to regain some momentum. Coming into the Combine, there wasn’t a ton of fanfare behind Joseph. There are some who really like his ball skills and instincts but there is too much below average film to ignore.

The pulse around the league is that this is a mid day three football player right now. If he isn’t able to make teams comfortable with himself during this week, there is no guarantee that he will be drafted once April rolls around.

ATHLETIC TESTING RESULTS

It was a day to forget for Joseph when it comes to athletics testing. He measured in solid across the board but did have slightly shorter arms. There was no one area that was overly alarming however.

Joseph proceeded to run a very underwhelming forty yard dash time, which is a test that he wasn’t expected to do exceptionally. The problem is none of the other tests were overly impressive either. There was just nothing that stuck out about Joseph.

He has always been more smooth than explosive but the jumps were very worrisome. Joseph didn’t do much to help himself on Friday.

Here are the results from Joseph’s testing on Friday.

Height: 6’0⅜”

Weight: 202 pounds

Arm length: 30⅞ inches

Hand size: 9 inches

Forty yard dash: 4.62 seconds (1.56 ten yard split)

Vertical jump: 30.5 inches

Broad jump: 9’10”

Three cone: 7.08

Short shuttle: 4.23

FIELD DRILLS

Joseph did look a lot better during the field drills during his workout than the athletic testing. He has some smooth hips, showing looseness to get in and out of his pedal and transition easy out of his turn. He consistently looked comfortable changing direction during that portion of the day.

For a player who made his money on his ability to create turnovers during his three years of playing time, Joseph struggled to finish plays. He had a couple of drops, failing to locate the football well enough deep down the field and dropping another ball coming back toward the line of scrimmage.

In a lot of ways, the field work was a microcosm of Joseph’s career. There was a lot of promise, some highlight moments, but was a failure to finish.

HOW MUCH DID JOSEPH HELP HIMSELF?

Unfortunately for Joseph, his Combine performance didn’t help him a ton. He was rumored to interview well with teams but that wasn’t something that was much of a surprise. Joseph is a really bright football player and person who has a nice understanding of the defensive game.

At the end of the day, things are about to get a lot bigger and faster on Sundays. Joseph didn’t erase many question marks this week. In fact, he may have actually just created some more.

Leaving Indianapolis, it is more likely that Joseph doesn’t hear his name called at all during the 2023 NFL Draft than hearing it early on Day Three (rounds four through seven) currently. It was a very disappointing day overall but hopefully one he can recover from.

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