While the Los Angeles Rams may have fallen short of expectations in the 2019 NFL season, nose tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day can take solace in the fact that he was able to establish an integral role for himself on defense.
Joseph-Day was taken in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft out of Rutgers and largely spent his rookie year watching from the sidelines. After all, the Rams had already boasted perhaps the most formidable pair of interior lineman in the league with Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh.
Suh’s departure in the offseason allowed Joseph-Day to step into the starting role alongside Donald as an anchor upfront. Although the increase in playing time may have taken longer than he initially hoped, it seems he is happy with how the process played out.
Joseph-Day admits that having patience was a key part of his development, via Sarina Morales of the team’s official website:
It was definitely a very challenging one. A lot of patience was required, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world because I was able to learn so much being behind [Ndamukong] Suh and AD [Aaron Donald]. Watching AD and watching [Michael Brockers] handle their business every day. That really helped sculpt me as a player. And it really just made me more hungry, especially this past offseason. So that was probably the hardest thing is being patient and continuing to grow as a player even though you weren’t playing. It’s really hard for guys to grow in that situation, cause mentally you could psych yourself out and be like “well, I’m not going to play”. You know what I mean? The easy thing to do is to just take the easy way out of everything and not work out extra and not do things that you need to in order to develop… watch film and all that stuff.
It is undoubtedly encouraging to see that Joseph-Day managed to find a way to embrace the concept of patience so early in his career. There is no question that being able to watch players like Donald, Such, and defensive lineman Michael Brockers paid huge dividends for him now that he has emerged as a key piece on defense.
Of course, there is still much more room to improve if he hopes to hold his own as a long-term option next to the reigning two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year. The departure of defensive coordinator Wade Phillips could also force him to adjust to an entirely different scheme this offseason.
