{"id":503848,"date":"2025-11-06T07:59:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/503848\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T07:59:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:59:26","slug":"chargers-odafe-owehs-underrated-pass-rush-after-nfl-trade-from-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/503848\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers\u2019 Odafe Oweh\u2019s underrated pass-rush after NFL trade from Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation\u2019s Doug Farrar will write about the game\u2019s Secret Superstars<\/a> \u2014 those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we focus on Chargers edge-rusher Odafe Oweh, whose trade from Baltimore turned out to be one of those transactions that benefited everybody involved. <\/p>\n

Tuesday marked one of the most impactful trade deadlines in recent NFL history<\/a>, and perhaps one of the most impactful in the long run. But the trade that benefited both teams right off the bat in unexpected ways happened very much under the radar nearly a month ago. On October 7, the Chargers traded defensive back Alohi Gilman to the Baltimore Ravens for edge-rusher Odafe Oweh<\/a> \u2014 the rare Double-Harbaugh Swap \u2014 and both players have excelled in their new homes.<\/p>\n

While Gilman has patrolled the deep third in Baltimore\u2019s defense, allowing Kyle Hamilton to be a game-changing box player, Oweh, the Ravens\u2019 first-round pick in 2021, may be playing the best ball of his career. That\u2019s something to say for a guy who had 11 sacks and 55 total pressures in 2024, but what Oweh has done since hitting the Los Angeles area is quite something.<\/p>\n

Since Week 6, Oweh\u2019s four sacks ties him with multiple players for third-best in the league, and his 12 pressures on just 77 pass-rushing snaps is top 10, as well. While the great and hugely underrated Tuli Tuipulotu leads the team with seven sacks and 45 total pressures this season, Oweh has become the force multiplier this defense needed. With Tuipulotu, Khalil Mack, and Oweh at his disposal, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter can dial up some really interesting pressure concepts.<\/p>\n

At the time of the trade, Jim Harbaugh made quite the comparison when it came to Oweh.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, he\u2019s a lot like Khalil Mack,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cDirect rusher, has speed, has dip, has ability to set the edge. Been a very good, productive player, young player right in the prime of his career. Those things and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trade was made when Mack was on injured reserve, but Tuipulotu was already excited at what Oweh could bring to the fronts with a healthy Mack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just brings an extra threat, [an] extra person everybody has got to worry about,\u201d Tuipulotu said. \u201cIt helps everybody out. When the offense is game-planning against one person, it opens stuff up for other people. That\u2019s kind of what it is so when he comes in, especially when K-Mack comes back, we\u2019ll be stacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to build chemistry, show him the standard of what it is here at the Chargers. I think it will be easy for him to catch on with the defense, because they run something similar in Baltimore. We\u2019re not worried about him going out there and playing hard; we just have to go out there and play together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s certainly happened. Oweh\u2019s four sacks in a Chargers uniform have come out of some fascinating pressure packages. The second one he had against the Tennessee Titans last Sunday in the Chargers\u201927-20 win came on third-and-8 with 11:31 left in the game. Oweh and Tuipulotu were lined up together on the defensive right side, with Mack on the left, and linebacker Daiyan Henley as the fifth rusher. When Tuipulotu stunted inside with defensive tackle Justin Eboigbe, and Oweh gave left tackle Dan Moore Jr.<\/a> a wicked spin move, that was that for Tennessee\u2019s protection.<\/p>\n

Not that Oweh needs a ton of trickeration to get home to the quarterback \u2014 two of his four sacks with the Chargers have come in four-man fronts, where it\u2019s up to the edge guy to beat his man. Against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 8, Oweh took tight end T.J. Hockenson and right tackle Walter Rouse to the woodshed on the way to Carson Wentz.<\/p>\n

Beyond the on-field performance, it\u2019s easy to see that the chemistry is taking in all possible ways<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Down the road, as the 6-3 Chargers fight for contention in the AFC, it might be mentioned more often that the one trade that helped everybody involved happened nowhere near the deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation\u2019s Doug Farrar will write about the game\u2019s Secret Superstars \u2014 those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,1014,262,59114,2468,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-503848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-chargers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","12":"tag-los-angeles-chargers-depth-chart","13":"tag-los-angeles-chargers-roster","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-losangeleschargers","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115501699843478295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}