Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we focus on Cincinnati Bengals edge-rusher Joseph Ossai, who has been a recent standout in a defense in desperate need of any positive signs whatsoever.
When you have the NFL’s worst defense by DVOA, you have the NFL’s lowest blitz rate (15.5%), and you have the NFL’s third-lowest pressure rate (16.4%, tied with the New York Jets), and you’re without your best pass-rusher, it might behoove you to change your approach. That was the Cincinnati Bengals’ challenge as they prepared to face the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving Day.
With Joe Burrow back under center for the first time since Week 2, and staring down the barrel of a 3-8 record with negligible postseason possibilities, it was up to defensive coordinator Al Golden to switch things up. This Golden did, with a bunch of interesting looks you wouldn’t expect from a defense that has been sucking wind most of the year, and has been missing Trey Hendrickson since Week 8.
What did the Bengals do differently in their 32-14 win, in which they pressured Lamar Jackson at a 39.5% rate, and forced five turnovers that flipped the win probability to a 48.2% degree? Golden sent extra rushers on 10 of Jackson’s 38 dropbacks, a 26.32% blitz rate that does jibe with how the Bengals have been doing things of late. In Weeks 1-7, Golden called blitzes on 33 of 259 opponent dropbacks, a 12.7% rate that was obviously among the league’s lowest. Since Week 8, though, the Bengals have nearly doubled their blitz rate — 48 on 192 opponent dropbacks, which is a cool 25% blitz rate.
Is it a coincidence that Golden has been far more aggressive since losing Hendrickson? Probably not, and those blitzes haven’t always worked out. But as he is more confident with his cornerbacks, giving said cornerbacks no safety help has been a more practical option — certainly against the Ravens.
From the pass-rush angle, the guy who has really stepped up is Joseph Ossai, the fifth-year third-round pick from Texas. The Bengals re-signed Ossai to a one-year, $6.5 million contract with $3 million guaranteed this offseason, and that was a very good move — especially with Hendrickson’s injuries this season, and the fact that he probably won’t be back in 2026 after all the contractual stuff.
Ossai has already matched his single-season high with five sacks, and his 37 total pressures this season is a career best. Since Hendrickson has been out, he’s totaled three of those sacks and 19 of those pressures, and he’s getting to the quarterback with and without blitzes.
“I thought he finished last year on a really high note, and we wanted him back,” head coach Zac Taylor said of Ossai after the Ravens game. “He brings great energy in the building. Loves football, plays with a high motor every single snap, guys really respect him in the locker room. And so I’m happy to see him kind of find a rhythm here and give us what we need.”
Right now, the Bengals have a 5% shot of getting to the postseason; Burrow’s injury and the defensive struggles made this season a tough go no matter what. But Joseph Ossai has responded to his own expectations, and the needs of his team, with a level of play that matches or exceeds anything we’ve seen from him before.
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