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Ravens would be wise to wait out tough contract dilemma with former first-round pick amid 2024 breakout

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Kyle Crabbs | Last updated Jun 4, 2025 6:46 PM ET

The Baltimore Ravens’ defensive outlook this season is loaded with talent that is ready for a new commitment from the franchise. There are rookie contracts like Kyle Hamilton and Travis Jones, restricted free agent tenders like Ar’Darius Washington, and veterans like Kyle Van Noy. That’s just on defense, too. The Ravens are facing quite the challenging Tetris puzzle to try to maximize their extension opportunities to keep this nucleus in place.

One player who is also nearing the brink of a new contract, one way or another, and generating some buzz this offseason is pass rusher Odafe Oweh. Oweh set a career high in sacks in 2024 (10) and pressures (55) despite playing less than 700 snaps defensively on the season. It was a welcome development for the former first-round draft choice, who nearly doubled his career sack numbers from his previous three seasons combined. The timing is perfect for Oweh, who will now enter into a contract year red-hot with his play and motivated to build on his progress from 2024.

He’s 20 pounds up from his playing weight last season and garnering a lot of attention for his adjusted body composition. It should allow Oweh, who has always been long and twitchy, to play with more power in 2025. More power equates to more versatility in how he can defeat tackles, which could mean more career highs in sacks and pressures in 2025.

This is what 20 more pounds of muscle looks like on Odafe Oweh. pic.twitter.com/qokrnTQjE9
— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) June 3, 2025

With rookie Mike Green now in the fray on the edge as a second-round draft choice, Baltimore can afford to stick to their price in any negotiations with Oweh ahead of the start of either training camp or the season. If Oweh takes an offer at their price, great.

But given that Oweh broke out to the extreme degree that he did last season, the Ravens may be wise to let this one play out patiently through the 2025 season before getting too ambitious with offers. Theoretically, Baltimore could be burned by overpricing Oweh based on a one-year sample size in negotiations.

Plus, with the rapidly accelerating market prices for sack artists in today’s market, it’s hard to say where Oweh’s appetite to sign an extension would even begin. Do the looming updated contracts for fellow AFC North pass rushers like Trey Hendrickson and T.J. Watt serve as a reason for Oweh to wait and bet on himself based on his training this offseason?

It’s tricky. And because of how many other additional players are in line in Baltimore for a new deal, the Ravens are likely wise to wait and prioritize negotiating with names like Tyler Linderbaum and Kyle Hamilton first and foremost. Baltimore could offer record-setting contracts for both a center and a safety, and the combined annual average would be equal to that of what Myles Garrett signed as a new market reset at EDGE this offseason.

The unfortunate reality of this situation is that if Oweh’s encore performance is too good, the Ravens could be priced out with so many other contracts to tend to. With the risk at hand, it’s a “needs of the many versus the needs of the few” debate. General manager Eric DeCosta’s primary objective is to tend to the needs of the many.

So while Baltimore could certainly find the right price that makes sense for both them and Oweh, doing so without more clarity on the cost and the stability of Oweh's 'new' production levels feels like it has a very narrow margin for error this summer.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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