Until this offseason, Odafe Oweh thought he had to choose between speed and power. He wanted speed.

The Ravens outside linebacker weighed around 245 pounds last season because he felt faster that way. He tried to get around offensive tackles because he didn’t feel confident he could go through them. He sacrificed some stoutness as a run defender because he felt he’d make up for it as a pass rusher.

Then the Ravens’ defensive front got pushed around in a playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills, and Oweh decided he wanted power. But, as he packed on the pounds this offseason, his weight rising to around 265 pounds, Oweh realized he hadn’t lost a step. He could have both, the speed and the power.

“I haven’t really gotten to test it yet,” Oweh said after Wednesday’s practice during organized team activities, where “live” contact is not allowed. “But I’ve had some situations where I tried to push somebody, and they’re kind of flying off, too, so it’s helping. I think it’s going to be good for me this year.”

Oweh’s physical transformation could mark an inflection point in a career that has not exactly gone as planned. When the Ravens took the Penn State standout with the No. 31 overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft, they were betting on a vision. What Oweh lacked in production — he didn’t have a sack in a COVID-shortened 2020 season — he made up for with immense physical gifts.

But the Ravens did not see one of the fastest edge rushers in NFL draft history as a speed rusher. Former Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz called Oweh a “power bender.”

“He has speed,” Hortiz said after the 2021 draft of Oweh, who ran a sub-4.4-second 40-yard dash at his pro day. “But his rush is really a power, bend, hands, just core, and he’s got the speed. That’s where we’ve got to develop with him — using that speed and developing it even further.”

Oweh has already developed into a quality player in Baltimore. He had a career-high 10 sacks and 48 pressures last year, according to Pro Football Focus, and he has started 23 games over four seasons.

What Oweh hasn’t developed, however, is his power as a pass rusher. Over the past three seasons, Oweh has recorded 132 quarterback pressures, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. A review of those plays found just 13 pressures resulting from “power” moves: a long arm, bull rush or some other technique requiring Oweh to go through an opposing blocker.

Oweh’s bulked-up physique — coach John Harbaugh said he’s put on 12 to 15 pounds of muscle — won’t turn him into Jared Verse, the Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie last season with a power-first, power-second bag of pass rush moves.

But Oweh’s added strength should help him better leverage his athletic skill set. His broad jump, a measure of lower-body explosiveness, ranked in the 99th percentile among edge rusher draft prospects, according to MockDraftable. Oweh’s arm length was in the 85th percentile. (Verse ranked in the 92nd and 50th percentile, respectively.) Yet Oweh won most often as a pass rusher last season with his speed, agility and hand-fighting.

“I can see him being … a more direct rusher,” Harbaugh said Wednesday of Oweh. “Use his power, use [the] bull [rush] a little bit more.”

There have been false starts in that development. Before the 2023 season, Oweh said that, under assistant coach Chuck Smith, he was beginning to understand how to convert his speed into power. He called himself a “power-explosive edge rusher.” But his play didn’t bear that out; Oweh finished with just five sacks that season, and only a handful of his pressures came via power moves.

This year, Oweh’s third under Smith, a more diverse arsenal could turn him into one of the NFL’s best pass rushers. Oweh ranked 17th in the league last season in ESPN’s pass rush win rate among qualifying edge defenders, getting home with a mix of swipes, rips and dips. Now that he’s bigger, stronger and perhaps just as fast, blockers will have to worry about getting run over, too.

“I think any good pass rush is going to start with power,” former Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald said in 2023. “If you just go down the list of the top pass rushers throughout the league, they have some sort of power. If you have no threat of power, tackles are not going to respect it, and the rest of your stuff isn’t going to be set up as well.”

Oweh has much to prove this season. He played over 60% of the Ravens’ defensive snaps in just six of his 17 games last year, sidelined for stretches in favor of stouter run stoppers in linebacker Malik Harrison and outside linebacker Tavius Robinson. In the divisional-round loss to the Bills, who rushed 36 times for 147 yards, Oweh earned 21 snaps, his second fewest all season.

Oweh’s next step will shape his future in Baltimore and beyond. Now in the fifth and final year of his rookie contract, Oweh faces stiff competition for playing time from veteran Kyle Van Noy, who led the team with 12.5 sacks in 2024, as well as youngsters Mike Green, Adisa Isaac, David Ojabo and Robinson. With another productive season, Oweh could power his way to a lucrative deal.

“Obviously, I’m just trying to be the best player for the team,” he said. “I would be crazy to say that [a new deal] is not something a little bit in the back of my mind, but every year I try to get better, try to be better than I was last year. So, to be honest, that’s really what I’m focused on. I know, if I do that, it’s going to take care of itself.”

Said Harbaugh: “My goal for him is to be All-Pro. Go be the best, be the best in the business, and that’s tough, because there’s a lot of good players playing his position. But that’s the way he sees himself, and let’s go for it.”