Raiders select S Karl Joseph with No. 14 pick in 2016 NFL draft

With the No. 14 pick in the 2016 NFL draft, the Oakland Raiders select West Virginia safety Karl Joseph.

Doug Farrar | Apr 28, 2016

Raiders select S Karl Joseph with No. 14 pick in 2016 NFL draft /

With the No. 14 pick in the 2016 NFL draft, the Oakland Raiders select West Virginia safety Karl Joseph.

GRADE: C

GM Reggie McKenzie has helped put the Raiders back on track, but this is an interesting pick for a team in need of secondary help. Joseph is a big hitter with some coverage ability, and he’ll fill the hole left by Charles Woodson, which is a major thing to do. But at 5' 10" and 205 pounds, he’s a little light for the position at the NFL level. Bob Sanders will be the idealized position, but Sanders was an outlier, and he was also hurt a lot. Size debits combined with a physical style seems to be a recipe for danger, but Joseph is a true competitor.

Strengths: There are some inherent dangers in playing a devil-may-care game like Joseph does—penalties and injuries, to name a couple. There also is a clear benefit to having a big hitter who makes receivers think twice about going over the middle. Joseph moves well downhill, and he also can drop down and cover. —Chris Burke

Weaknesses: Torn ACL in 2015. Can get trapped out of position looking for the big hit. —CB

Published Apr 28, 2016

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.