Joseph Ossai eyes a breakout season

A big year for the edge rusher.

The Cincinnati Bengals will need more out of their pass rush in 2024. With 44 sacks on the season in 2023, that was only good for 25th in the entire league. While Trey Hendrickson had a Pro Bowl year, the team struggled to find an effective rush outside of him.

Rookie Myles Murphy showed improvement at the end of the season, and the former first-rounder will likely see even more snaps this season, but the forgotten man in the Bengals’ pass rush rotation is Joseph Ossai.

After flashing in the preseason after being drafted in 2021, Ossai has faced a myriad of injuries as he has tried to find a way to make a consistent impact. Ossai has battled injuries to his wrist, knee, ankle, and a torn labrum. All within three NFL seasons.

Now, Ossai is able to approach the offseason in a way that he never has before – healthy.

Last season, Ossai only registered 177 snaps. After suffering a high ankle sprain, Ossai was on the sidelines while Murphy and Cam Sample got the reps and started to make the most of them. Instead of hanging his head, Ossai seemed to take it for what it was.

“I don’t know,” says Ossai when asked if it’s all very frustrating via Bengals.com’s Geoff Hobson. “But I will say there are a lot of great guys in that room. From a coaching standpoint, it’s tough to pull some guy. At that point, you just have to deal with the hot hand, and Murph had a year, Cam had a year.”

For a player battling injuries and a lack of playing time, it can be very hard on you mentally, and Ossai was very open about how Hendrickson helped him through a tough 2023 campaign.

“This past year, he just helped me develop, helped me with my pass rush mentality, and then also just out of football,” Ossai says. “We would go to a church ministry at night once a week. Outside of football, we both found something that we could kind of connect with and just him mentoring me.

“It was good to see that it just wasn’t football, it was also life,” Ossai sad. “Things like my faith and just holding on to God and he was really a big part of me and my mentality and just my mental health last year.”

With a healthy offseason to improve and guidance from one of the best pass rushers in the NFL, things are looking up for Ossai as he looks to finally break through.