‘Poetry in motion’: How Joshua Uche is reestablishing his pass-rush identity on the other side of the Eagles-Chiefs rivalry

Joshua Uche affectionately describes his father, Emmanuel, as a “very strict” and “no-nonsense” guy. So when Emmanuel sat in the Caesars Superdome stands in February to watch Uche’s team at the time, the Kansas City Chiefs, compete in the Super Bowl, he didn’t have ample patience to deal with rowdy Eagles fans.

A group of them were standing up in front of Emmanuel during the game. He held out hope that they would eventually sit down. Time passed, and the fans remained on their feet.

“I finally said, ‘Hey, sit down, please,’” Emmanuel recalled. “‘I didn’t come here to watch your back.’”

Uche’s memory of Emmanuel recounting that story later that week when they were home in Miami, where Emmanuel had moved several years after his immigration to the U.S. from Nigeria in 1980, made him laugh.

“He told me that story and I was like, ‘Damn, water and oil,’” Uche said.

Now, Uche said, Emmanuel is on the Eagles’ side. In fact, the 26-year-old Uche said his father was the one who told him that he was going to sign with the Eagles during free agency in March to a one-year deal. He didn’t persuade him. He didn’t make the suggestion to him. He told him.

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Emmanuel, who is an architectural engineer by trade, was handling the communication with Uche’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, in free agency. Emmanuel said that roughly 14 teams had expressed interest in Uche to Rosenhaus. But Emmanuel deduced that Philadelphia, fresh off a Super Bowl win, presented the best opportunity for his son. He said he appreciated that the Eagles “did their homework” by reaching out to Steve Belichick and Matt Patricia, two of his former coaches with the New England Patriots, to learn more about Uche’s capabilities.

Uche trusted his father’s judgment. The decision came after an unceremonious, ringless end to his four-month stint with the Chiefs, the team that had acquired him at the trade deadline from the Patriots. He was inactive for the playoffs and seldom saw the field in six regular-season games.

Ahead of his return to Kansas City for the Super Bowl rematch on Sunday, Uche harbors no resentment toward the Chiefs — “I’m very grateful to Kansas City,” he said. But as he swapped allegiances in the offseason, he hit refresh on his career, eager to rediscover the success he once had when he posted 11½ sacks with the Patriots in 2022.

“I’ve been at the top of my pass-rushing game in my third year, but you’ve got to start at ground zero and work your way back up,” Uche said this summer.

The reason Uche is still appreciative of his time with the Chiefs is because, he said, they “bailed me out of a blunder.”

At the end of his rookie contract following the 2023 season, Uche, the Patriots’ 2020 second-rounder out of Michigan, signed a one-year deal to return to New England. At the time, Uche said he felt like he was “destined to be a Patriot.” He followed his heart amid a year of transition for the Patriots under a new head coach in Jerod Mayo.

In hindsight, though, Uche said the Patriots weren’t the right fit for him in 2024. It showed in his dwindling snap count leading up to the trade deadline. Emmanuel said his son’s close ties to Bill Belichick, who traded up 11 spots in the draft to select Uche, became an issue for an organization that was trying to “scrub the name ‘Belichick’ off of the wall.”

“Belichick showed a very strong likeness toward Joshua, and worked with Joshua very closely, and really treated Joshua like his own son,” Emmanuel said. “Joshua became a casualty of that situation.”

But while Uche may have erred in his decision to return to New England, Kansas City wasn’t a much better fit, he added. At 6-foot-1, 240 pounds, Uche is relatively undersized for an edge rusher, period. In Kansas City, that disparity was even more glaring. The average edge rusher on the Chiefs’ active roster in the Super Bowl, besides Uche, measured 6-4, 266 pounds.

“I know the body types Coach Spags [defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo] likes over there and I don’t think I fit that mold,” Uche said. “I think my last game as a Chief, I was playing off-ball linebacker the whole game, which was fun. But I don’t think I fit what he wanted from a body type of players, which is probably why they didn’t utilize me.”

Andy Reid echoed a similar sentiment regarding Uche’s fit at the NFL annual league meeting in March. Still, Uche said he had a “great experience” in Kansas City. He was determined to do whatever he could to help the team win, whether he was contributing on scout team or on special teams.

He would stay on the field after practice to work on his get-off and his pass-rush moves. He ran gassers in practice to stay in shape. He repeated the same refrain in his head over and over again to keep himself locked in mentally — I know what type of player I am. I know what type of player I am. I know what I’m capable of.

“[I was] trying to show [on] scout team like, ‘Yo, I’m here,’” Uche said. “But sometimes, people got to find out after the fact.”

Uche showed the type of player he could be in 2022, when he blossomed under Belichick. The longtime Patriots coach was a “hard-ass,” he said, who he likened to his own father. That style of coaching resonated with Uche. Belichick valued Uche, too, bestowing the responsibility to call the defensive front on third downs upon him based on what the offense was showing him.

That role required a thorough understanding of the weaknesses along the offensive line. How he gleaned those weaknesses began in film study, where he would pore over quarterback tendencies and the offensive front’s protections. He kept a mental Rolodex of offensive tackles’ pass sets. But those tackles could present something different in real time, so Uche would have to be quick to adjust in-game.

He also had to communicate quickly and effectively with the rest of the defensive line. His communication skills were tested in the Patriots’ 2023 Week 1 matchup against the Eagles. On a third-and-long play in the second quarter, Uche was already making the play call when Matt Judon ran on the field late. That changed everything, so he had to readjust each player on the front.

They were still effective on the rep. Uche managed to beat Lane Johnson inside with a basketball-esque Euro step and land a hit on Jalen Hurts to force an incompletion. That hit was one of two that the two-time All-Pro right tackle gave up all season, according to Pro Football Focus.

“It was a battle the whole game,” Uche said during training camp. “He doesn’t give up any pressures. Just a lot of preparation went into that one rep.”

Looking back, Uche said that third-down responsibility made him a better player. But he still doesn’t know why Belichick entrusted him with the job coming out of college. To Judon, who was his teammate in New England for three seasons, it’s pretty obvious.

“He’s a Michigan Man, so that’s a credit to his smarts,” Judon said. “And we all trusted him. We got the play from the middle linebacker, but then everybody shut up and let him do what he’s supposed to do.”

In 2022, Judon led the team with 15½ sacks. Eight of those sacks came on third down. He attributed most of those third-down wins to Uche based on his calls. Judon noted that Uche “unselfishly” called a lot of stunts for other players along the defensive line, allowing them to generate sacks, too. That year, the Patriots defense tied for third in the league with 54 sacks.

Judon wasn’t solely impressed with Uche’s intelligence. He also admired his physical traits, including his get-off, his speed, and his bend. Even at his smaller stature, Judon said, Uche could bull rush and put tackles on their backs. In mid-December that year, Judon called Uche the best pass rusher on the team.

“Because I saw the things that he could do,” Judon said. “I saw what he did in practice. And just the explosiveness that he had. I just knew when he could put that all together and go out there and do it on the field, that he would be our best pass rusher.”

Two days before Uche signed with the Eagles in free agency, Zack Baun had been trying to recruit him while they were on an NFLPA trip to Hawaii.

Baun, who went to Wisconsin, knew Uche from their days in the Big Ten. He would see their names atop stat lists in 2019, their final college season. By chance, they trained for the scouting combine together at EXOS in Phoenix and have kept in touch ever since.

The Eagles’ All-Pro inside linebacker said he knew an opportunity would await Uche in Philadelphia. The edge-rusher corps was in a period of transition following the departure of Josh Sweat in free agency and the impending retirement of Brandon Graham. Baun also knew Uche’s game would fit well in Vic Fangio’s defense.

“I think what Vic is looking for is versatile defenders,” Baun said. “Guys that can do a lot of different things. I think I’m a piece. I think you can look at his past teams, like [former Miami Dolphins outside linebacker] Andrew Van Ginkel was a piece. That outside linebacker that can cover, that can rush, and I think Josh can do a lot of those things.”

In a very small sample size, Uche is off to a strong start in Philadelphia. According to Pro Football Focus, Uche led all NFL defenders with at least 18 pass-rush snaps in Week 1 in pass-rush win rate (43.8%). His four pressures tied for the team high with Nolan Smith, who took 11 more pass-rush snaps.

Even though he failed to bring down Dak Prescott for a sack, Uche was in the Cowboys’ backfield all night long. From training camp to the start of the season, Uche’s arsenal of pass-rush moves have stood out to his teammates, including fellow edge rusher Ogbo Okoronkwo.

“He’s just doing crazy stuff out there and it’s working,” Okoronkwo said. “I saw him, he hop-skipped off the ball, gave a stutter, and then swiped the tackle’s hands and went inside and won. I’m just seeing him do things that are just unheard of. And it’s working so effectively. It’s like poetry in motion.”

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That effectiveness is rooted in preparation, according to Okoronkwo. Uche knows when to take his chances because of the film study he puts in during the week. When Okoronkwo stays late at the NovaCare Complex to get his recovery in, he often sees Uche walking through the locker room, eyes glued to his iPad.

“He might run into something,” Okoronkwo said with a smile. “He’s so distracted.”

Okoronkwo wasn’t the only Eagles edge rusher to pick up on Uche’s unique pass-rushing style. During camp, Jalyx Hunt referred to Uche’s pass-rushing style as “unorthodox” and “free-spirited.” He explained that Uche is adept at switching up his line — in other words, whether he rushes inside or outside — and has the ability to “throw in some curveballs” to catch opposing tackles by surprise.

Patrick Johnson concurred with Hunt’s “unorthodox” assessment, but in a different way. Johnson, the 27-year-old edge rusher and core special teamer, said that Uche skillfully controls the tempo of his rushes.

“It’s a sudden change in speed,” Johnson said. “So he can get off really fast, slow it down, build back up to speed super quick. It’s super unique. Not a lot of guys can do it. But he’s pretty darn good at it, though.”

This week, Uche switches his sights from Prescott to Patrick Mahomes, his former teammate with the Chiefs and adversary of the Patriots. Uche is well-acquainted with the challenge that Mahomes poses, given his ability to escape the pocket and extend plays.

Emmanuel won’t be in the stands this time — but now that he’s an Eagles supporter, he said he can empathize with the “die-hard” fans who stood in front of him at the Super Bowl. Regardless, as he roots for Uche from afar, he is happy to see his son “in the right place with the right people.”

“If the first game is an indication of what’s going to happen in the future, the other teams better watch out,” Emmanuel said.