Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai is looking to make some improvements to his game this offseason going into his third year in the league, and he couldn’t be getting help from many better places than he is.
Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com wrote that Trey Hendrickson has taken Ossai under his wing in the past year, and told him to stay in Cincinnati with the Bengals’ strength staff instead of going home to Texas during the offseason.
“This past year, he just helped me develop, helped me with my pass rush mentality, and then also just out of football,” Ossai said. “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.”
Ossai has dealt with multiple injuries in his two years with the Bengals, but he has played through a lot, still getting to 30 combined games in those seasons.
He said that Hendrickson is helping to improve his mental game so that he’s able to move on from plays that he didn’t make in the past, or he got flagged on, like the late hit that was called in the AFC Championship the Bengals ultimately lost.
Whether Ossai will make the improvements he’s setting out to is yet to be seen, but it definitely can’t hurt when it’s Hendrickson who’s helping him work.
