The Washington Commanders made a major bet on Odafe Oweh this offseason, and ESPN’s Seth Walder thinks the payoff could show up in the sack column right away.
Washington’s pass rush was only so-so last season, finishing with 42 total sacks, and the team lost its top sack producer, Von Miller, in the offseason. To help fill that hole, the Commanders handed Oweh a four-year, $96 million deal.
Oweh’s 2025 season came in two very different parts. In five games with the Baltimore Ravens, he didn’t record a sack, though he did finish with five quarterback hits and one tackle for loss. After a trade to the Los Angeles Chargers, the production flipped fast: 7.5 sacks, 13 quarterback hits and eight tackles for loss over the final 12 games.
Walder expects something close to that Chargers version in Washington. He projects Oweh to land in the top 20 in sacks this season with seven. As Walder put it:
“Oweh is coming off an interesting season in which he recorded zero sacks in five games with the Ravens, following by 7.5 in 12 with the Chargers after being traded. Which was the real Oweh?
I'd say ... both? Oweh was actually recording a strong pass rush win rate before the trade -- it just didn't result in sacks. The sacks eventually came once he went to Los Angeles and Washington paid big money for Oweh to fill their edge-rushing void.
Will he? To some degree.
Oweh has demonstrated an ability to win on a play-to-play level and can deliver sacks. And finishing 20th on this list is solid, even if the 7.0 forecast doesn't feel amazing.
But Washington fans should be realistic. Oweh is a good pass rusher, but not a great one.
At $24 million per year in today's cap environment, that's essentially what they paid for.”
The Commanders also brought in K’Lavon Chaisson, who played last season with the New England Patriots and posted 7.5 sacks and 18 quarterback hits. Pairing Chaisson with Oweh gives Washington another edge-rushing duo with real sack potential, at least if both players hit their ceiling.
Still, the question with Oweh is consistency. He had five sacks in 2021, three in 2022, and then five again in 2023 before breaking out in 2024 with career highs of 10 sacks and 23 quarterback hits.
If Oweh matches either his 2024 form or the production he showed after joining the Chargers in 2025, Washington’s defense should be better overall this season. If he falls back to the quieter stretches he had from 2021 through 2023, or the slow start to 2025, the Commanders’ big swing on him will look a lot different.
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