Notre Dame at the NFL Combine, Friday live blog: Safety Brandon Joseph goes through workouts
The individual highlight of Brandon Joseph’s college career came at Lucas Oil Stadium. Joseph, then a Northwestern safety, skied for a one-handed interception of Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields in the 2020 Big Ten Championship Game. More than two years and a transfer to Notre Dame later, Joseph will step on that same turf in Indianapolis Friday hoping to turn heads again.
This time, though, he’s not wearing pads and a helmet. He’s working out in front of evaluators and decision-makers for every NFL team at the NFL Combine. The defensive back and special teams workouts at the combine begin at 3 p.m. ET and run until 8 p.m. NFL Network is televising all five hours. Joseph and the safeties will hold their workouts some time in that period. Joseph was measured at 6-foot and 202 pounds, with 9-inch hands and 30 7/8-inch arms at the combine Friday.
Joseph is the second of four Notre Dame players at the combine to go through testing and workouts. Defensive end Isaiah Foskey went Thursday, tight end Michael Mayer will go Saturday (1 p.m. to 8 p.m.) and offensive lineman Jarrett Patterson Sunday (1 p.m. to 7 p.m.).
Joseph started all 10 games he played in 2022, his lone season at Notre Dame. He totaled 30 tackles, 1 interception and 1 pass breakup. He spent 2019-21 at Northwestern, where he was a consensus All-American in 2020. He had 9 interceptions in his final 19 games with the Wildcats. He was the No. 1,042 overall player in the retroactively applied On3 Industry Ranking and played at College Station (Texas) High School.
Follow along here for live updates of Joseph’s on-field drills and real-time analysis from the NFL Network broadcast crew. All combine results can be found here.
RELATED: More Notre Dame football:
• Why Brandon Joseph felt confident in declaring for the NFL Draft after one year at Notre Dame
• Friday 5: No mistaking that Notre Dame is Marcus Freeman’s program now
Live updates: Brandon Joseph’s NFL combine workout
3:20 p.m. ET: The workouts begin with 40-yard dashes from a few specialists and cornerbacks. Joseph is not in this group.
4:25 p.m ET: The cornerbacks through position drills. Joseph and the safeties have yet to start workouts.
Around 4:45 p.m.: Safeties begin broad jump and vertical jump, but it’s not televised. Joseph posted a 9’10” broad jump, which was 15th out of 19 safeties. His 30.5″ vertical jump was 19th out of 19th.
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5:58 p.m.: Safeties start the 40-yard dash.
6:10 p.m.: Joseph runs an unofficial 4.62 40-yard dash on his first attempt.
“Incredibly smart when you talk to the folks at Notre Dame and Northwestern,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said on the broadcast.
6:30 p.m.: Joseph’s second 40: 4.67 unofficial.
6:35 p.m.: All 40s are finished, and the safeties begin position drills. First up is “line drills,” where safeties have to flip their hips three times while running along the hash mark, turn around and catch a pass.
“He battled an injury at the end of the year and missed a little bit of time,” Jeremiah said during Joseph’s first line drill rep. “He ran pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised with how well he ran.”
6:50 p.m.: “Backpedal and transition” is next. It’s the same line drill, but with an across-the-field sprint and catch at the end.
7 p.m.: Official 40 times for safeties are out, and Joseph’s is 4.62. That’s tied for 14th out of 19 safeties. His 10-yard split is 1.56, tied for ninth.
7:08 p.m.: On-filed drills continue with “backpedal and 90-degree break.”
8 p.m.: Workout coverage is done for the day.
Later: Joseph did the 20-yard shuttle and 3-cone drill. His shuttle time was 4.23 seconds, second of the three safeties who participated in it. He did the 3-cone drill in 7.08 seconds, second of two safety participants.
