American football player Joseph Ossai, originally hailing from Nigeria, has suffered a knee injury which has ruled him out of the upcoming season in the National Football League (NFL). The defensive end had been set for his debut campaign in the NFL, drawing excitement not just in his native Nigeria, but also in Cincinnati. The Bengals selected him in the third round of the NFL Draft back in April.
At the moment, Cincinnati are a team that are predominantly focused on rebuilding, which is why Ossai was employed in the first place: to help them improve on their defense. They are currently +10000 in the NFL betting odds for the Super Bowl LVI outright markets and at +6600 odds to win the AFC Championship. Losing Ossai for the campaign ahead is bad luck and definitely doesn’t help their chances of success.
With no prospects of featuring in the 2021/22 season, Ossai has been added to the injury reserve list, meaning he will not be eligible to play in the campaign. He picked up the knee injury in a preseason game against defending Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
During his two games of the preseason, the 21-year-old from Lagos showed exactly why he was taken 69th overall in the NFL Draft. In that victory over the Bucs, Ossai recorded a notable sack on Tom Brady, arguably the greatest quarterback to ever play the sport.
Impressive College Career
Between 2018 and 2020, Ossai went to college in Texas. He was impressive from his opening year with the Longhorns and in his freshman season, he played in all 14 games for his college team, recording a total of 20 total tackles, one sack, and a forced fumble.
In his sophomore year in Texas, the Nigerian led the team with 62 tackles. He also made five sacks, two inceptions, and a blocked kick. He picked up a number of awards at the end of that campaign.
Ossai ended his final year in college football as a Consensus All-American and First-team All-Big 12. He had a whopping 55 tackles, 15.5 tackles for a loss, and five sacks under his belt. This impressive series of accolades were enough for Cincinnati to take him so early on the draft board. Sadly, Bengals fans will now need to wait until 2022 to see their new defensive end lineup in a regular-season NFL match.
Growing List of Nigerian Players In NFL
Ossai has joined a growing list of Nigerians who are now competing in the NFL. Arguably the most famous of those is Nelson Agholor. Like the new defensive end in the league, he was also born in Lagos.
Agholor won the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018. The wide receiver was selected in the first round of the NFL Draft in 2015 and has since gone on to fulfill his promise as he has been consistently one of the best players in his position. The Super Bowl LII winner is now with his third team in the NFL. He joined the New England Patriots in the offseason and he will be hoping to help the AFL East team make another appearance in the biggest game in the sport.
With fantastic track records behind them and promising futures ahead, both players are proudly paving the way for their Nigerian compatriots and living up to their reputations within the NFL.
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