Getty Oakland Raiders Safety Karl Joseph.
Karl Joseph may have played hero for the Oakland Raiders in their game against the Los Angeles Chargers, but the NFL doesn’t care. The veteran safety was hit with a $28,075 fine for unnecessary roughness, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero
He’s not the first Raider to get fined this season and surely won’t be the last. He’ll have a chance to appeal the NFL’s decision, but it remains to be seen if he will.
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Insult to Injury
Getting hit with a fine wouldn’t be too bad for Joseph. First-round picks make decent money on their rookie contracts. However, at the end of the Chargers game, the safety suffered a season-ending injury. The worst part about it is that he is in a contract year and was finally starting to play well. Joseph has battled injuries throughout his career, but nothing this severe. He’ll have to wait until next year to work his way back, but it’s up in the air which team that will be.
The Raiders have now lost both of their starting safeties to injury for the season. Daryl Worley is the only Week 1 starter in the defensive backfield that will also start in Week 11. Oakland is going to need to hope that some new players step up. D.J. Swearinger was brought in almost immediately after the Raiders found out that Joseph would miss the year. He’s a veteran with lots of starting experience. He should fill in well for Joseph.
Joseph Wants to Stay With the Raiders
The Raiders didn’t pick up Joseph’s team option this offseason, so he is set to hit free agency once the season is over. While there should be a number of teams interested, he doesn’t seem eager to leave.
“Of course,” answered Joseph when asked if he wanted to stay with the Raiders. “This is the team that drafted me. I love playing with this group of guys. I love playing for this coaching staff. I love playing in coach Guenther’s system. I think it’s a great system for me, for the safeties . . . it’s out of my control. All I can do is get healthy.”
The Raiders are going to have an interesting decision to make. Joseph shouldn’t cost too much for the team to extend him, but they obviously have reservations about him. If they didn’t, the team would’ve picked up his option. The last couple of games he had before his injury certainly helped his chances. He was very impressive and made game-winning plays in both.
Also, the Raiders have invested a lot into safeties in the past few drafts. It’s doubtful Jon Gruden will be very eager to do that once again. Joseph isn’t going to the pro bowl anytime soon, but he’s a solid player and should benefit from Johnathan Abram returning next season. Gruden also hasn’t seemed to keen on keeping players he didn’t draft. It’ll be interesting to see what ends up happening. It’s possible he signs a one year deal with the Raiders and tries to prove himself in 2020.