*Selected in the seventh-round of the 2003 NFL Draft, linebacker Steve Josue spent all of last season on the Green Bay Packers' practice squad.
A former standout at Carson-Newman, and the defensive MVP of the 2003 Cactus Bowl all-star game, Josue is now overseas with the Amsterdam Admirals getting game experience in NFL Europe.
Through four games this season, playing the weak-side linebacker position, Josue has five tackles (four solo), including a sack.
This week, Josue checked in with Packers.com to continue the NFL Europe Diary, taking over where Admirals teammate Derek Combs left off.*
Josue: So far the experience in NFL Europe has been wonderful for me. I consider it an honor to be able to come out here and play, because for a guy like me there's no substitute for game experience.
I spent all of last season on the practice squad, so it feels really good to play in games again. As a player, you never lose the mentality of the game, but after a while you start to forget what it feels like to go hit people. Actually getting the chance to throw my body around and make plays has been fun.
The point of me being over here is to just learn how to play linebacker. We can always get better, but there are certain techniques that Coach Mark Duffner wanted me to work on, specifically my pass rushing.
I think I've played pretty well, but I have to admit I thought I'd be playing more. I'm playing the 'will' linebacker spot, and over here, the way this defense is set up, that position isn't really featured very much in the game plan.
I'm only really involved in the base defense, and so I have to come off the field a lot and that's kind of frustrating. But I'll take what I can get.
Right now, the Packers are in Green Bay at mini-camp. Part of me kind of wishes I was there so I could be learning some of the new wrinkles on defense, but I know that the game experience over here will make me even better. I'm sure when I come to training camp I'll be a little bit behind, but I'll just have to put in a lot of extra time so I can catch up.
This is my first time over in Europe, and it's been a lovely experience. I always thought I'd come to Europe someday, I just never knew when that would happen.
Most of the time we're focused on football, but it's cool to see parts of the country when we travel from spot to spot on the trains.
My favorite city so far is probably Amersterdam. We're actually located about 30 minutes away from there by train in Utrecht. I've only gotten into the city a few times, but when I've gone it's been interesting.
While I've been away, I haven't kept up all that much on what's going on with the team at home, but every now and then I get on Packers.com to see the latest news. Just a few days ago, I went online to see who the Packers drafted.
To be honest, I was kind of happy to see that the team didn't add any linebackers, because I'm fighting for a spot on the roster. But I try not to focus on that. After all, the team could sign a free agent tomorrow.
The bottom line is that I have to get better and take care of business. If I do that, everything else will fall into place.
That's kind of the way it's been for our team the past few weeks. We started out 0-2, but we've won two in a row and we're going to try to make it three this weekend at Berlin.
If there's been a surprise for me so far, it's that the level of play in NFL-E is so high. Being on the practice squad last year, I can tell you that most of the guys over here could probably fit in nicely with NFL teams.
From that standpoint, I know that if I can play well over here, I can probably make it in the NFL. And that's pretty encouraging.
The Amsterdam Admirals-Berlin Thunder game is Sunday at 8 a.m. and will not be televised in the U.S. The Packers.com NFL Europe Diary will continue throughout the season.
