He thought wrong.
"22 is coming! 22 is coming!" Brady yelled before the snap, accurately calling out Joseph's blitz.
In his fourth NFL game, Joseph was given one of his first "Welcome to the NFL" moments by one of the game's greats.
"I was looking and staring in space wondering how did he realize I was blitzing? I was so young and wet behind the ears I was giving the tell away before the play," Joseph said after practice Wednesday.
Brady caught him inching towards the line of scrimmage, and while he and the Bengals lost that day 38-13, he took a positive experience away from that game.
"After the game he came up to me and he said 'Great game, Johnathan" and that just stuck with me forever, just being a guy at his level and knowing my name as a rookie and being professional as he was," Joseph said. "That's the way I always try and act as a professional."
The Texans cornerback will lineup on the other side as Brady for the 12th time in his NFL career. He's still looking for his first win.
"I wanna kick their ass for sure," Joseph said. "We've been close, close, close, but that doesn't get anything done, and I don't want any moral victories. I want to win the game at the end of the day."