Odafe Oweh has spent enough time feeling boxed in that the word still sticks with him. Now, after a midseason trade out of Baltimore and a big-money move to Washington, he’s talking about something else entirely: freedom.
That shift started with the same phone call that sent him spiraling. The Ravens, after Oweh had struggled to get to the quarterback following his 10-sack 2024 season, dealt their former first-round pick to the Los Angeles Chargers in the middle of last season for safety Alohi Gilman.
“They told me over the phone, and two hours later, I was on a flight to L.A. with just like a little duffel bag,” Oweh said.
He arrived in Los Angeles as the new face in a locker room already built around an established group. He had to learn how to “mesh” away from the field while still trusting that he could be the kind of dominant rusher Baltimore had once hoped for, even after the Ravens moved on rather than commit to a longterm deal.
The change worked quickly. Oweh snapped his sack drought in his first game with the Chargers, then finished the regular season with 7.5 sacks and added three more in the postseason. That run set up a four-year, $96 million contract with the Washington Commanders in free agency, making him the fourth-highest paid player to sign in free agency this offseason.
Now he’s headed back to familiar territory. On Wednesday, Oweh will travel with Washington to the Ravens’ practice facility for joint practice with his old team and their new coach, who also happens to be Oweh’s former Chargers defensive coordinator.
For Oweh, that trip comes with a lot of baggage and a fresh opportunity at the same time.
“Back in the DMV, got a good chance to, not right my wrongs, but kind of just have a different flair, bring a different Dafe to the DMV, a more positive Dafe,” Oweh said.
His Baltimore years never really settled in. A shoulder injury his rookie season led to offseason surgery before 2022.
In 2023, an ankle injury slowed him again. He dealt with another ankle injury in 2024, though he still managed to post a career season.
Even when he was healthy in 2025, a decision he made in the offseason complicated things. Oweh said he regretted focusing on adding weight. He put on about 20 pounds to bring more power to his pass rush and more strength against the run, and at 265 pounds he was the heaviest he had ever been.
At the time, he felt his speed and explosiveness were still there. But the results never really followed, and he played just 45 percent of Baltimore’s snaps. The experiment didn’t last, either; Oweh is listed at 251 pounds on the Commanders roster this year.
That’s part of why he says he feels better making those calls for himself now, with a clearer sense of what works.
“understanding what type of player I am, understanding who I am, what I do best and dominating within that role.”
There were also deeper frustrations in Baltimore, ones Oweh only partially opened up about.
“I just feel like there was a lot of like stuff going on, just in the facility, the defense, just a lot of daily issues that was going on in terms of like what we were trying to do with personnel,” Oweh said.
The loss of defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike in Week 2 to a season-ending neck injury changed things, too. Oweh acknowledged that the injury mattered, but he also believed the Ravens could have adjusted better and found ways to “bandage” the hole with players already on the roster.
“I think there was just a lack of understanding of what we were going to do next after Nnamdi went down,” Oweh said.
Not long after that, the Ravens’ issues were no longer his to sort out.
In Los Angeles, Oweh says Jesse Minter gave him the kind of latitude he had been missing.
“I think Jesse would tell you guys too, he just let me be free and let me rush freely and not be capped, not be in a jail,” Oweh said.
That freedom changed the way he attacked the game. Instead of feeling locked into one method every snap, he could approach pass rushing “like chess.” He wasn’t learning a whole new arsenal of moves so much as feeling comfortable testing things, playing faster and being more aggressive without worrying that one mistake would bury him.
The results showed up in the numbers. According to Next Gen Stats, Oweh posted the sixth-highest pressure rate in the league at 17.3 percent. He also came through in the postseason, finishing the Chargers’ playoff game against the New England Patriots with three sacks and two forced fumbles.
When free agency opened, he landed back on the East Coast, and the fit made sense on multiple levels.
His sister lives nearby, and Oweh said, “It just made sense,” when explaining why Washington felt right.
After signing, he spoke with defensive coordinator Daronte Jones about how he’d be used. Oweh liked hearing that he’d have chances to find one-on-one matchups and play fast, and he also appreciated that the Commanders valued him as a run defender.
“I’ve worked hard and by the grace of God, He’s helped me get better at the pass rushing aspect,” he said. “The run game was what I hung my hat on at first.”
He had a strong start to camp, but a calf injury will keep him out in Owings Mills. Even so, he’ll still get a look at the Ravens under new defensive leadership, with Minter taking over for John Harbaugh.
Minter’s background gives Oweh a familiar frame of reference. He was an assistant alongside Mike Macdonald, then followed him as defensive coordinator at Michigan, and the two still share ideas. Zach Orr, Baltimore’s defensive coordinator the last two years, also spent years on the same staff with both of them.
Still, Oweh says this Ravens defense won’t be a carbon copy of what came before.
He pointed out that Minter’s system can look different for edge players in Baltimore.
“He did a good job of letting edge defenders go and make the play,” Oweh said. In Orr’s defense, Oweh and other rushers were more often asked to stay disciplined, hold the edge and occupy blockers while others tried to generate pressure.
Even so, he likes what he sees from the current group. Oweh said he expects the Ravens’ pass rushers to do well under Minter, praising Tavius Robinson’s run defense, Green’s pass-rush ability and Trey Hendrickson’s all-around game.
“It could be similar to exactly what we had with the Chargers, if not better,” Oweh said.
And in Washington, he’s hoping for the same thing he found in Los Angeles: a defense that lets him hunt.
“I think this defense is going to let a lot of people wreak havoc, not just me,” Oweh said.
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