Ravens Trade Oweh - Everything Is On The Table

"Everything is on the table"

That was John Harbaugh's answer on Monday when asked about potential changes to his now 1-4 Baltimore Ravens team.

What did he mean by that? Well, 24 hours later, we got our answer.

The Ravens have traded away former 1st round pick EDGE Odafe Oweh and a 2026 7th round pick to the Los Angeles Chargers, getting SAF Alohi Gilman and a 2026 5th round pick in return. In addition, the team has added former Eagles and Texans DB C.J. Gardner Johnson to the practice squad.

Certainly wasn't expecting THAT...

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you how ass the Ravens defense has been, and that might be an understatement. We all thought this defense would be good, but for the second straight year, we were fooled. As Old Man Clemens once said, "IT'S POOP AGAIN".

Yep. That's us Ravens fans. Ignoring that it could be shit, sniffing the shit, realizing it's shit, then declaring it's poop again. The rest of the NFL is Billy Madison & company (shoutout Norm MacDonald), just sitting there laughing at how bad we are. It's a really dark time to be a Ravens fan. It seems like everything that could possibly go wrong, has gone wrong. From the self-inflicted losses, to the injuries, and everything in between, it's been a big fiery bag of shit.

With that being said, something needed to happen, and today's transactions could be the first of a handful of moves this team makes.

Let's set the record straight: This trade does NOT mean the Ravens are selling. In fact, this is quite the opposite. Odafe Oweh was a gamble that Eric DeCosta took with an extra late-round Day 1 pick acquired in the Orlando Brown Jr. trade with Kansas City prior to the 2021 NFL Draft. Oweh was a high risk, high reward type prospect, but never developed into the impact pass rusher that they hoped he would be. To be completely honest, he was pretty shitty. He can't bend around the edge because he's too stiff. He can't bull rush because he doesn't have the strength to do so. He's always too slow off the snap. If you look at his stats over his career, and specifically this year, it does not paint a pretty picture. Over his career, he has almost 3 times as many pass rush snaps as he does run defense snaps, a clear indication that the staff didn't trust him in run situations. That's a must-have trait for outside linebackers in this organization. Also, he's playing a career low snaps per game, being out-snapped by Tavius Robinson and #MyGuy rookie Mike Green. The writing was on the wall. At this point, you have to call it what it is. He was a failure of a draft pick. Was he a "bust"? Maybe, maybe not. He was productive, but he never played like the first round talent the Ravens were hoping he'd become. If you can't stop the run or rush the passer, get off my team. Smell ya later Oweh.

Now to the newly acquired Ravens. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson is the type of player that will either be a fan-favorite or cut in two weeks, but one thing is clear: He's going to be a physical, bad ass MFer out there that will bring some swagger and attitude to a defense that has been soft as a high quality toilet paper. Alohi Gilman isn't Ed Reed by any means, but he's a high IQ player who plays the run well and will provide quality depth to a secondary that desperately needs it. Both of these guys will likely see significant snaps early and often. This will allow Kyle Hamilton, who was supposed to be the green-dot guy before getting hurt in practice last week, to roam around and direct the defense the way he sees it. They might not be flashy moves, but it's a step in the right direction.

Let's not forget to mention that the trade of Oweh frees up about $7M in cap space... I don't think this team is done making moves. In my (very popular) opinion, they HAVE to make another move. Could it be for a star caliber player like Jeffery Simmons, Quinnen Williams, or Dexter Lawrence? Could they be making moves to acquire a number of cheaper options, like Calais Campbell, Sebastian Joseph-Day, A'Shawn Robinson, or Kevin Zeitler? We shall see... It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks. I expect things to pick up next Monday or Tuesday during the bye.

Regardless, let's go get a fucking win this Sunday.

Go Ravens. Go everybody.

Yours truly,

Judge Baltimore