Clemson Football: Kendall Joseph’s 2019 NFL Draft Grade
Former Clemson football linebacker Kendall Joseph will begin his professional career in just a matter of days. Where does he grade in terms of the draft?
As we head into the week of the 2019 NFL Draft, we’ve heard plenty about several former Clemson football players.
Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell and Dexter Lawrence are all projected to go in the first-round. All three are expected to go anywhere from the mid-to-late part of the first round and will, in fact, be high-priority draft picks according to several NFL organizations.
We’ve heard a lot about mid-rounders like Trayvon Mullen, Tre Lamar and Austin Bryant. We’ve even heard a lot of talk about Hunter Renfrow and his draft position.
One guy we haven’t heard a lot about from the Clemson football circuit, though, is linebacker Kendall Joseph.
As we head into the 2019 NFL Draft, Joseph isn’t expected to be selected.
NFL.com graded his film and combine results and came away thinking that Joseph will be a high-priority free agent following the draft.
After analysts looked at his film and combine results, they gave Joseph a grade of 4.97. For those of you unfamiliar with the grading system, the grade basically rates a player’s potential. A grade of 5.00 means a player has a 50/50 chance of making an NFL roster. A grade of 9.00-10.00 means that the athlete is a once-in-a-lifetime player.
Basically, most analysts believe that Joseph will be signed by a team following the NFL Draft and will have a little less than a 50 percent chance to make the 53-man roster.
Joseph has never been the loudest person on the team, but he is a great leader and has the potential to develop into a serviceable linebacker. Right now, scouts and analysts alike are a little concerned about his movement, in particular.
Joseph needs to either put on some weight and become a run-stuffer or quicken up his feet to develop into a fleet pass-defender.
Right now, he’s kind of a tweener.
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Though analysts aren’t giving him a great chance to make a roster, I believe Joseph has what it takes to be on a roster and potentially even be drafted in the late rounds. His talent and leadership shouldn’t be overlooked and he certainly has the right work ethic to develop into a NFL-caliber linebacker.