Texas Football: Ossai explodes onto the scene with sack of Tom Brady

In a big week of preseason debuts in the NFL for a number of former Texas football players, the former star junior outside linebacker/edge rusher Joseph Ossai came through in a big way for his new team. Ossai was the second Texas Ex selected in the 2021 NFL Draft. The Cincinnati Bengals selected Ossai 69th overall in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft.

The only former Longhorn selected ahead of Ossai in the 2021 draft was the standout offensive tackle Samuel Cosmi, who was picked up in the second round by the Washington Football Team.

Moreover, both Cosmi and Ossai made their NFL preseason debuts this week. Ossai’s came in an eventual win for the Bengals over the defending Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And Ossai was tossed into the limelight right away.

Former Texas football star Joseph Ossai makes life tough for Tom Brady and the Bucs

In one of his first snaps in the NFL with the Bengals, Ossai registered a sack of the legendary Bucs quarterback and former Michigan Wolverine Tom Brady. The Bengals’ defense was all over the place in this five-point win over the defending champion Buccaneers.

It was pretty surprising that the Bucs played Brady at all in this game. But it didn’t last long, as Brady only had two passing attempts for a total of nine yards in this outing. Ossai might be a big reason for that.

And Ossai had a lot to do with that.

He got the lone sack of the night on Aug. 14 of Brady for the Bengals. That was one of four sacks on the night for the Bengals’ pass rush.

Ossai’s stat line on the night was pretty impressive. He registered three combined tackles (tied for second-best on the team in this game), one sack, one tackle for loss, and two quarterback hits. It was the defense that was the driving force to nab this win for the Bengals.

The Bengals forced a whopping five turnovers of the Bucs in this game. Three of those were fumbles and two were picks of the former Florida Gators star quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy finalist Kyle Trask.

However, it wasn’t all well and good for Ossai in his preseason debut. While he was really solid for the Bengals this weekend, he did come up with an injury that cut his debut short. Ossai injured his right wrist and did not return in this game.

The Bengals will reportedly have to further evaluate this wrist injury for Ossai to see what the recovery timeline will look like.

At least Ossai came out with a solid preseason debut. We hope this wrist injury isn’t anything major for him and that he’ll be able to make it back at least by the regular season opener for the Bengals.

Next up for Ossai and the Bengals in this preseason slate is an Aug. 20 meeting with Cosmi and the Washington Football Team. The Bengals are set to open up the regular season at home on Sep. 12 against Kris Boyd and the Minnesota Vikings.