Chargers 90-in-90: DT Sebastian Joseph-Day

Sebastian Joseph-Day was a big free-agent signing in 2022 and he’ll be leaned upon to lead the Chargers’ run defense in 2023 once again.

Sebastian Joseph-Day hails from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania where he played at Stroudsburg High School under head coach Joe Bernard. As a senior, Joseph-Day recorded 40 tackles and a whopping 17 tackles for loss to help lead his team to their second-consecutive Mountain Valley Conference Championship in 2012.

As a three-star recruit by Rivals.com and ESPN.com, Joseph-Day chose to stay on the east coast to play for the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers.

Joseph-Day earned playing time as a true freshman, but an injury forced him to redshirt just one game. In 2014, he played a role in all 13 games for the Knights but finished with just three tackles.

Finally breaking into the starting lineup, Joseph-Day began all 12 games at nose tackle for the Knights in 2015. He finished with 22 tackles and 5.5 tackles for loss with one sack. Over his final two seasons, Joseph-Day collected 71 tackles, eight tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, two pass deflections, two forced fumbles, and two blocked kicks. He was named an Honorable Mention All-Big Ten pick as a senior in 2017.

Joseph-Day would go on to be a sixth-round pick of the Rams in 2018. Unfortunately, he’d fail to be activated for the entirety of his rookie season. However, that didn’t stop him from putting in the work to see the field in 2019.

In year two, Joseph-Day started 15 of 16 games for the Rams where he totaled 44 tackles, five tackles for loss, two sacks, and a pass deflection. He followed that with 16 starts in 2020 where he set a career high with 55 tackles to go with a tackle for loss and another sack. An injury cut his 2021 season short to just seven starts, but Joseph-Day still managed to set a career high in sacks with three.

During the 2022 offseason, Joseph-Day signed a three-year, $24 million contract to stay in Los Angeles, but this time as a member of the Chargers.

As a first-year Bolts, Joseph-Day notched new high marks with 56 tackles and nine tackles for loss in 16 starts. He also added a pair of sacks and picked off his first pass.

Basic Info

Height: 6’4
Weight: 310
College: Rutgers
Experience: 1
Years with team: 4

Contract Status

“Sebastian Joseph signed a 3 year, $24,000,000 contract with the Los Angeles Chargers, including a $7,500,000 signing bonus, $16,500,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $8,000,000. In 2023, Joseph will earn a base salary of $6,500,000, while carrying a cap hit of $9,000,000 and a dead cap value of $11,500,000.” – Spotrac.com

The Good

The Chargers signed Joseph-Day to help reinforce their run defense as he was one of the best up-and-coming run stoppers at his position. His positional flexibility also allows him to play any of the Chargers’ three interior positions within their base 3-4 defense. He’s a leader on the field and for him to only miss one game to injury during a year where the defensive tackle position was throttled by severe injuries was huge.

Off the field, Joseph-Day is also one of the best and most-infectious personalities on the Chargers. It’s easy to see how he fits so well into this roster and he should only be better in year two.

The Bad

Despite a career-high nine tackles for loss in 2022, Joseph-Day posted the worst grades of his career as a run defender and pass rusher, per Pro Football Focus. After never grading below a 62.0 in run defense, he earned a 49.3 last season. In fact, Joseph-Day’s overall grade has plummeted since a career-best 80.6 in 2022 with a 61.6 in 2021 and a 51.6 in 2022.

Odds of making the roster/What to expect in 2023?

Joseph-Day will be one of the Chargers’ two to three starting defensive tackles, depending on which personnel packages they trot out there. With Austin Johnson slowly coming back from a season-ending surgery and second-year player Otito Ogbonnia still on the PUP list, Joseph-Day will be tasked with leading a young group of player into the new year as the Chargers try to reverse their luck at stopping the run in year three under Brandon Staley.