Texas Football: Longhorns that could be day two steals in the NFL Draft

Joseph Ossai, LB/Edge Rusher

There was a point in time in which it looked like the former Longhorns star junior outside linebacker/edge rusher Joseph Ossai was locked in as a potential first-round pick in this draft. Yet, Ossai wound up staying on the big board through the end of day one of the draft, with a plethora of talented linebackers as a whole still available on day two.

Where Ossai could find an edge on day two is with the lack of true pass rushers available at this point of the draft. What looked to be the best pure pass rusher in this draft class, former Miami Hurricanes and UCLA Bruins defensive end Jaelen Phillips was taken off the board in the middle of the first round.

And there were other snags among pass rushers in the first round including the Indianapolis Colts selecting former Michigan Wolverines defensive end and the Baltimore Ravens picking former Penn State Nittany Lions defensive end Odafe Oweh.

There should not be a huge margin that teams have in evaluating defensive ends/edge rushers like Paye and Oweh compared to the likes of Ossai. An outside linebacker/edge rusher that had one of the highest pressure rates on the team. And Ossai got more than 70 quarterback pressures in total last season, which is one of the higher marks in recent program history.

Ossai will wind up as a second-day steal in the draft for pretty much any NFL team that is willing to look his way right from the start of the second round. Most NFL Draft experts had Ossai scouted/graded out to be a first-round level talent in this class.