Joshua Josephs Prospect Profile

Background

Joshua Josephs grew up in Kennesaw, Georgia, the son of Patricia Josephs. His father died in a tragic accident when Josephs was young, and he has credited his mother, brothers, and sisters as his primary support throughout his career. He played youth football for the Acworth Warriors before starring at North Cobb High School, where he was a two-year team captain who led the defense to back-to-back Region 3 championships, posting 98 tackles and four sacks as a junior and 104 tackles and six sacks as a senior. This earned him first-team all-state and all-county honors along the way. A four-star recruit, he committed to Tennessee over Michigan, Penn State, Miami, and Kentucky. He appeared in 12 games as a true freshman in 2022, then spent two seasons in a rotation behind Byron Young and James Pearce Jr., quietly accumulating 59 tackles, 13.5 TFL, and five forced fumbles in that span. In 2025, he emerged as the full-time starter, recording 33 tackles, six TFL, and four sacks. He graduated in December 2025, opted out of the Music City Bowl, and declared for the 2026 NFL Draft.

Physical Attributes

RAS:

For his stature, Josephs has extremely long arms. 34.25" arms rank in the 79th percentile for all drafted EDGEs in the MockDraftable database. He combines those long arms with decent speed, and first step explosion that help him fire to ball carriers.

Data and Tape Analysis

If you are unfamiliar with my EDGE radar charts, you can find more information here

Based on the tape I watched, I would have this radar chart look a lot different. Josephs is a very solid run-stopping EDGE with a mediocre pass-rushing arsenal.

Let's talk about his pass rushing first. His feet are too busy when trying to bull rush the tackle, so he never effectively gets push. I would be more generous with his lack of refinement here, but he uses that move a lot. His better move is his outside rush, which when he can capitalize on his speed looks good, but still struggles against bigger and more fleet footed tackles. He had a really fun spin move. I am not sure why he did not throw out more often. Taken as a whole, his pass rush did not seem to threaten the QB often enough (especially considering how few snaps he plays) and did not scare OTs.

His run defense is another story. I love it. He leverages his go go gadget arms to keep blockers' hands off him and then that explosive ability to fire to the ball once it is nearby. Josephs was smart when to set an EDGE versus when to attack the ball carrier. Every snap he keeps working until the whistle blows and adds a very solid pursuit game to plays that end up behind him.

Grade and Outlook

Joshua Josephs seems like a solid depth EDGE to me. One who can offer a little pass-rushing juice, and that you do not have to worry about being taken advantage of in the run game. I am leaning more towards him remaining a rotational piece throughout his career than a starter.

Grade: 4.8 (Late 3rd Rounder / Early 4th Rounder)