Texas Football: Joseph Ossai will be a stud right away for the Bengals

On the night of April 30, it felt like a near guarantee that one of the first former Texas football players to hear his name called in the 2021 NFL Draft would be their former star junior outside linebacker/edge rusher Joseph Ossai. Texas Exes should be draft in hoards later in day two, and early on in day three.

However, it wouldn’t wind up being too early on day two that the former Longhorns stud Ossai would hear his name called. The Cincinnati Bengals out of the AFC North would wind up picking Ossai 69th overall in the third round of the draft.

Ossai was the second former Longhorns player off of the board, after the Washington Football Team selected offensive tackle Samuel Cosmi 51st overall in the second round.

There are about four or five former Longhorns that should be off the board by the end of round five or six. That is more success in the draft that the Longhorns have found since about the 2017 or 2018 class, at the very least.

Former Texas head coach Tom Herman started to develop talent a little bit better than his predecessor, Charlie Strong. But the player development was a major problematic point of emphasis for both Strong and Herman during their time on the Forty Acres.

However, there was no questioning the job that the Longhorns coaching staff did in developing the 6-foot-4 and 255 pound Ossai in the last couple of years. During his three years playing for Texas, Ossai registered 165 combined tackles, 30.0 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks, two interceptions, three pass breakups, five forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery.

Texas saw Ossai become an All-American last season and a First-Team All-Big 12 selection. He truly earned those honors by racking up just shy of two tackles for loss per game last season, and just under one sack per game.

Bengals get tremendous value in former Texas football LB Joseph Ossai

There were some truly huge games that Ossai had for the Longhorns last season. In the loss to the TCU Horned Frogs in their Big 12 home opener last year, Ossai registered 11 combined tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, and one forced fumble.

And in the Longhorns’ upset win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys on the road last season, Ossai racked up a whopping six tackles for loss, three sacks, 12 combined tackles, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery.

It is clear that Ossai can put his imprint on games in the blink of an eye. And given his quick get off from the line of scrimmage, rangy physical tools, and proven production from his time with Texas, Ossai has shown that he’ll be an impact player at the next level.

The Bengals took their first Texas linebacker in the draft since they picked the former All-American Malik Jefferson in the third round of the 2019 draft. While that didn’t wind up working out too well in the end for the Bengals, Ossai fills a much different role.

It’s likely that Ossai will compete for reps at one of the defensive end spots for the Bengals. The Bengals do run a 4-3 defensive scheme, so Ossai would have to drop some weight to fit in at a spot like a strong-side linebacker.

The two current projected starters for the Bengals at the defensive end spots are Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson. It looks like Ossai could mainly compete for a backup role right away with the Bengals with the likes of Cameron Sample and Khalid Kareem.

The Bengals were busy as a whole early in day three of the draft trying to upgrade their defensive line. They selected the former Tulane Green Wave edge rusher Sample in the fourth round, and then also snagged former LSU Tigers defensive tackle Tyler Shelvin in day three.