'Major move': Harbaugh brothers pull off stunning trade

Details of the trade emerge

Baltimore will trade Oweh and a 2026 fifth-rounder to Los Angeles for Gilman and a 2027 seventh, ESPN’s Adam Schefter adds. This will move a former first-round pick to a Chargers team missing Khalil Mack on the edge. Oweh is tied to a fifth-year option; no substantive extension talks are believed to have occurred between he and the Ravens.

This trade, 12 years after Jim and John Harbaugh agreed on an Anquan Boldin swap when Jim was with the 49ers, also reunites Oweh with Chargers GM Joe Hortiz. The Bolts hired Hortiz from the Ravens; he was in Baltimore’s scouting department when the team drafted the outside linebacker in 2021.

Oweh is tied to a $13.25M fifth-year option salary. It has not been reported the Ravens will pick up any of that tab, with Schefter adding the AFC North team will save around $8M with this trade. While it is a bit surprising to see the Ravens give up on a former first-round pick who played well in 2024, Oweh is unsigned beyond 2021.

Baltimore did not re-sign Matt Judon after franchise-tagging him in 2020, leading to the Oweh draft choice, and the team did not bring back Jadeveon Clowney in 2024. The team has searched for a long-term OLB piece post-Judon, using Oweh and veteran stopgaps — Kyle Van Noy the most notable — during this period. Baltimore picked up Oweh’s option in May 2024 and then saw him post a 10-sack season also including 23 QB hits. Both were runaway career-high marks for Oweh, but he does not have a sack yet in 2025. The Chargers will still bet on the sporadically productive pass-rusher.

Both the Chargers and Ravens are going through a rough stretch

This trade comes as both the Harbaugh-led teams are trending downward. As our Ely Allen detailed Sunday night, the Ravens are mired in a historically bad defensive stretch. John Harbaugh reaffirmed Zach Orr‘s DC status, but at 1-4 and with Lamar Jackson sidelined with a hamstring injury, the Ravens are well off course. The Chargers have lost back-to-back games, seeing O-line injuries pile up. They will say goodbye to Gilman, who played in three-safety sets alongside Derwin James and Elijah Molden under DC Jesse Minter.

The Ravens have played without Van Noy at points this season, and while the aging EDGE returned in Week 5, Baltimore still dropped a 44-10 game to Houston. The Ravens have six sacks as a team, with Tavius Robinson — a 2023 fourth-round pick who supplanted Oweh in the starting lineup — delivering two of those. The team will lean on Robinson moving forward. Robinson’s rookie deal runs through 2026; Van Noy (34) is signed through season’s end.

Oweh, who will turn 27 before season’s end, started 23 games from 2021-24. The Ravens showed modest extension interest, but no deal was believed to be close this offseason. That set up a pivotal contract year for the Penn State product. He will now finish that out in Los Angeles, as the Chargers will pair Oweh with Tuli Tuipulotu and Bud Dupree for the time being. Mack’s dislocated elbow is not viewed as a season-ending injury, so the 3-2 Bolts should be able to roll out a Mack-Tuipulotu-Dupree-Oweh quartet later this season.

How Oweh fares during his L.A. stint will crystalize his free agency value. If Oweh can bounce back under Minter, he could command a reasonably strong market. After all, he also played a key role for a No. 1-ranked Ravens defense in 2023. Although, Oweh never eclipsed five sacks in a season prior to 2024. The Chargers will attempt to coax better form as they compete for the AFC West title with the Chiefs and Broncos.

The Gilman move comes a year after the Bolts re-signed him. Early in the Hortiz-Jim Harbaugh partnership’s run, the team brought back the Tom Telesco-era find on a two-year, $10.13M contract. A former sixth-round pick, Gilman has been a full-time starter over the past three seasons. Gilman’s presence has helped unleash James in a hybrid role at which the All-Pro excels, but Garafolo notes the Ravens wanted him for the same role — for Kyle Hamilton-unleashing purposes.

Baltimore has been busy at safety Tuesday, adding both Gilman and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. The Ravens’ home run with Hamilton aside, they missed on safeties Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson in recent years. Eric DeCosta was also at the controls for the team’s Earl Thomas misfire. In Gilman, the Ravens have a player who excelled under Jim Harbaugh. Gilman’s deal expires at season’s end.

As was discussed in a recent Trade Rumors Front Office piece, the Chargers had been attempting to get by with a low-cost defense — everywhere but safety, that is. The Bolts had allocated by far the most money to safeties this season, having re-signed Molden on a three-year, $18.75M deal early this offseason. With James still on a top-market safety pact, the team will swap out the Gilman money for Oweh’s option price, taking on a bit more than it is sending out. Pro Football Focus slots Gilman 33rd among safeties this season.

It is the Ravens who are now flooded in safety investments. Although Gardner-Johnson is starting out on the practice squad, it should be expected the veteran starter debuts for the team soon. Baltimore also used a first-round pick on Malaki Starks. It would stand to reason Gilman would play in three-safety looks in Maryland soon, though it is obviously unclear at this point if he will be in the Ravens’ post-2025 plans.