Kelvin Joseph remains a man in limbo.
The second-round cornerback from Kentucky would seem to be in a most precarious place with the Cowboys. While uncertainty continues to surround him off the field over the role he played in a fatal shooting this spring in East Dallas, his place on the team’s roster is also up in the air, with the 22-year-old having suffered an injury of some kind recently.
The club maintains that they are hopeful about both situations.
The 2021 draft pick was present during Tuesday’s minicamp-opening practice, sporting his new No. 1 jersey. But he was off to the side, not working with the defense.
With Wednesday’s and Thursday’s sessions cancelled, he’ll now wait until July’s training camp in Oxnard for a chance to get a leg up in what has become a crowded DB room.
The Cowboys currently have ten cornerbacks on the roster, ranging from last year’s interception leader Trevon Diggs to veterans Jourdan Lewis and Anthony Brown to special teams ace C.J. Goodwin to fellow sophomore Nahshon Wright to new rookies DaRon Bland, Quandre Wright, and Isaac Taylor-Stuart.
Big things are expected of Joseph in the Dallas secondary, after being the 44th overall pick last year. He saw action in 10 games as a rookie, but was limited to barely 14% of the team’s defensive snaps for the season and logged just 13 tackles.
Head coach Mike McCarthy, though, didn’t seem overly concerned about Joseph’s health as the team heads into its long break.
“I think he’s going to be okay,” the coach told reporters Thursday. “It’s a minor injury that he’s working through. I think after the five weeks off, I anticipate he’ll be a full go in training camp.”
Kelvin Joseph missed OTA session today with an undisclosed ailment. pic.twitter.com/Bj4wBkaqH6
— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) June 9, 2022
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What’s less clear is his legal outlook.
Joseph was present on the night of March 18, when Cameron Ray was shot to death outside the OT Tavern by members of a group Joseph was with. While his attorney maintains that Joseph was unarmed and not looking for trouble that night, he did not come forward regarding his involvement until a month later and did so only after his image from surveillance video had been broadcast on the local news. He was not charged after meeting with homicide detectives for several hours.
The Cowboys have reportedly addressed the matter privately with Joseph and have allowed him to participate in team activities, even as the NFL and Dallas police continue their separate reviews.
McCarthy was asked about Joseph’s legal status in mid-May, just before the Cowboys’ rookie minicamp.
“I do not have an update on that situation, and I understand the concern,” he told reporters then. “I just want you know when the situation occurred, we had a lot of internal conversation that was really in-depth. And based off the information that we’ve been given, we felt it was important to support him, and he’s been here everyday. He’s been having a pretty productive offseason so far.”
Except for the injury prognosis, the coach had no further updates on Thursday, saying, “I haven’t been told anything for at least a month.”
Joseph himself made a somewhat cryptic post to Twitter on Thursday just as the team’s pre-training camp break got underway.
Ima handle my business nobody can carry my weight
— Kelvin Joseph (@bossmanfat1) June 16, 2022