Joseph Ossai’s steady emergence this year for the Cincinnati Bengals would seem to paint him quite suddenly as a priority free agent to re-sign.
While the Bengals will have a new defensive coordinator in 2025 and rising 25-year-old edge rushers tend to draw major attention on the open market, the team has plenty of cap space and a super-obvious need to create better pressure.
But there’s one problem — Ossai’s agent is David Mulugheta, as noted by The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. recently.
It’s no secret that the Bengals do not get along with Mulugheta. They’ve never done a contract extension with him, which includes Jessie Bates leaving in free agency.
Heck, it’s also the reason Tee Higgins parting ways with Mulugheta swung the conversation about him staying with the team so dramatically — it was a massive signal that perhaps the star wideout wants to do something differently and remain in Cincinnati compared to the failed negotiations so far.
Maybe Ossai turns out to be the exception. He’s very obviously not in the Bates-Higgins scale as far as dollar values, so who knows?
But, when thinking about the Bengals offseason, it’s just one of those little factors to keep in mind, to say the least.
