A rather stunning development has caught Cincinnati Bengals fans off guard in recent weeks.
No, not the inability to beat good teams — Joseph Ossai is consistently out-snapping former first-round pick Myles Murphy.
This has been especially jarring because it seems like Murphy, fresh off an injury, would be inserted as one of the guys to possibly save a defensive line that has played some terrible ball this season. Ossai has been a liability against the run, which has seemingly held him back from a bigger role in the past.
Instead, Ossai has seen a bigger uptick in playing time. Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo merely attributes it to his improved play, too.
“(Joseph) Ossai is giving us great effort and giving us physical play in the run game,” Anarumo said, according to WLWT’s Charlie Clifford. “He’s kind of stepped his game up in my opinion. No knock on Myles. (His) arrow (points) up. I just like what Joe’s doing.”
At this point, the line rotations feel a lot like the secondary that keeps shuffling names — desperate.
If Ossai is producing more than Murphy, great. But that’s not what a team that has a terrible time securing good draft classes lately wants to see from a first-round pick. And it makes the future messier when recalling that Ossai is on the final year of his deal and might not be back next season, anyway.
These are the types of things that generally go overlooked if a team is winning. But right now, stuff like this goes under the microscope as the team searches for answers in real time right in front of fans.
