Ravens Breakout Pass Rusher Shares Inspiration Behind Weight Gain

While the bulk of the blame for the Baltimore Ravens' latest shortcoming in the 2024 playoffs when they lost to the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round was placed on mistakes made by the offense early and late in the game, the defense was just as much at fault.

After fielding the top-ranked rush defense in the league during the regular season that yielded an average of just 80.1 yards per game, he got pushed around up front in the ground game and gave up a season-high 147 yards and three touchdowns.

That feeling of going from the bully to getting bullied particularly bothered outside linebacker Odafe Oweh and inspired him to undergo a physical transformation this offseason in which he put on 20 pounds of muscle, going from 245 to 265 pounds.

"I didn't have the outing I wanted, so I thought a lot of that had to do with my weight and being able to be stout in certain positions," Oweh said. "So, as soon as the season was done, I went to Miami, started eating, lifting and then gaining weight, basically."

Oweh's diet mainly consisted of dry chicken, Brussels sprouts and asparagus which he called "nasty meal prep" food but claims "it did the job" and produced the desired results.

The 2021 first-rounder entering the final year of his rookie contract on the fifth-year option is coming off a breakout campaign in which he posted the first double-digit sack season of his career with 10. However, he believes that he could've had even more and contested Pro Bowl veteran Kyle Van Noy for the team lead if he had been a little bit more powerful at the top of his rush.

"[It will help in stopping] the run," Oweh said. "And then obviously, the top of my rush, not being able to be pushed off the point, digging out the rip. And then obviously [with] power as well."

Oweh's calling card dating back to his prep days at Blair Academy when he was a two-sport star who also played basketball was his incredibly explosive athletics. He has been asked and always wondered how adding more bulk to his frame would impact his overall game but he didn't want to lose any of his speed element. Thankfully, now that he finally decided to do it, he still feels just as fast off the ball.

"I was always trying to keep my speed but my speed hasn't diminished," Oweh said. "There's a way you train to keep the muscle and obviously when you're building muscles, making sure you can be mobile with it."

The Ravens have high hopes for hopes for Oweh in 2025 with head coach John Harbaugh going as far as to say that he expects him to "go be the best in the business" and earn All Pro honors.