Ravens Edge Rusher Odafe Oweh Wants to 'Dominate'
What is the goal for Baltimore Ravens edge rusher Odafe Oweh heading into his third year in the NFL?
Dominate, as Oweh told the media recently in an interview. The former first-round pick out of Penn State realizes that he hasn't quite lived up to the expectations that many had for him out of college. But Oweh is looking to change that in 2023.
“I’ve got those in my head. I can’t give that to you all," Oweh said of his goals. "But it’s definitely to be dominant and just help our defense to be the best thing that we can be this year.”
Oweh tallied 43 tackles, seven for a loss, three sacks, and 11 quarterback hits last season, but that is not good enough as he is looking to take the next step after the Ravens' defense lost key pieces like veteran edge rusher Justin Houston, who is still a free agent, and defensive tackle Calais Campbell.
With Houston, the Ravens' sack leader a season ago, out of the mix, the team will turn to their younger options, Oweh and David Ojabo, to help fill the void. As for what Oweh is doing to achieve that goal, the Ravens helped him out by hiring Chuck Smith to coach their outside linebackers this offseason.
Smith has earned the reputation of being "Dr. Rush" due to his training program, which helped develop NFL pass rushers like Von Miller and Azeez Ojulari, just to name a few. Since beginning work with Smith, Oweh is already picking up on a few tricks of the trade.
“It’s been good. Working with Chuck, he’s giving us insight that a lot of guys, like me in particular, haven’t had, because a lot of my coaches, they’re great coaches, but they haven’t really played the position, and he’s played the position," Oweh said. "He’s trained a lot of guys that played the position at a high level. So, I’m getting little tidbits that I wouldn’t have necessarily gotten from the past years and everything.”
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