Early last season, it didn’t look much like Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther had a lot of faith in Karl Joseph. The third year safety barely saw the field early on, with Guenther instead going with the veteran duo of Reggie Nelson and Marcus Gilchrist.
By midseason Joseph missed time with an injury and as of week six had played just 11 snaps on defense.
When the team returned from the bye week, the team was sitting at 1-5 and realizing changes were needed on defense. Joseph’s snaps went up and by week 10, he was a starter and finished the season looking like he was very much part of the Raiders’ future.