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Alohi Gilman

Odafe Oweh Surprised By Timing Of Ravens-Chargers Trade

October 9th, 2025 at 2:47pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

When Odafe Oweh woke up in Baltimore on Tuesday morning, he had no idea he would end the day on the opposite side of the country playing for a different team.

In the afternoon, Oweh found out that the Ravens had traded him to the Chargers for safety Alohi Gilman, and less than 24 hours later, he was practicing in Los Angeles.

“Initially I was shocked with how everything happened,” Oweh said on Wednesday (via Chargers editorial director Eric Smith). “I had no prior knowledge to what was going on.”

Later, however, Oweh mentioned (via ESPN’s Kris Rhim) that he was more surprised by the timing of the trade than the fact that it happened at all. He discussed an extension with the Ravens in the offseason, according to Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, but talks did not get far. At that point, Oweh knew that 2025 would be his last year in Baltimore. The Ravens felt the same way and were not planning to re-sign him after the season, per ESPN’s Dan Graziano.

“I definitely didn’t think it was gonna happen before the [Ravens’ Week 7] bye,” Oweh added, but he indicated that he was not caught completely off guard by the move.

Though the two teams’ head coaches are brothers – Jim and John Harbaugh – the relationship between their general managers was largely responsible for the deal. Chargers GM Joe Hortiz worked under Ravens GM Eric DeCosta for several years before he moved to Los Angeles last offseason. The Harbaughs did not talk until after the trade was completed, per Zrebiec.

Both Oweh and Gilman are expected to suit up for their new teams in Week 6.

Ravens, Chargers Swap OLB Odafe Oweh, S Alohi Gilman

October 7th, 2025 at 10:12pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Harbaughs are making a deal. The Ravens are trading edge rusher Odafe Oweh to the Chargers in a pick-swap exchange also involving Alohi Gilman, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo report.

Baltimore will trade Oweh and a 2027 seventh-round pick to Los Angeles for Gilman and a 2026 fifth-rounder, ESPN’s Adam Schefter adds. This will move a former first-round pass rusher 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.

[RELATED: 2025 NFL Trades]

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 Baltimore’s director of player personnel when the team drafted the outside linebacker in 2021.

Oweh is tied to a $13.25MM 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 $8MM with this trade. Gilman is tied to a prorated $3.5MM base salary, giving the Ravens some flexibility as they attempt to recover from a disastrous defensive start. 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 this season.

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 Ravens ahve 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 April 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 (Oweh does rank 33rd in 2025 pressure rate, per TruMedia). The Chargers will still bet on the sporadically productive pass rusher.

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. The injury-wrecked unit has fallen from ninth last season to 32nd through five games. 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 an auxiliary role for a No. 1-ranked Ravens defense in 2023. Though, 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, $10.13MM 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. Hamilton and Gilman also played together at Notre Dame in the late 2010s.

Baltimore has been busy at safety today, 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 I discussed in a recent Trade Rumors Front Office piece, the Chargers had been getting 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, $18.75MM 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 few million more than it is sending out. Pro Football Focus slots Gilman 33rd among safeties this season. The Chargers should be expected to turn to ex-Raven (and ex-Ravens scout) Tony Jefferson in Gilman’s place, per ESPN.com’s Kris Rhim.

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.

Minor NFL Transactions: 1/4/25

January 4th, 2025 at 9:47pm CST by Ely Allen

The last minor moves and standard gameday elevations of the 2024 NFL regular season:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Ross’ new deal to the Texans’ 53-man roster is good through the 2025 season, as well. Ditto for Jones, signed to the active roster in New England today.

Sanders returned to practice this week, and his activation will allow him to close out his second Panthers season on the field rather than on the mend. His Carolina tenure has fallen well short of expectations and a release in the near future could be in the cards. Given the team’s backfield injuries, though, Sanders could handle a notable workload tomorrow while potentially auditioning for free agent suitors.

Gilman’s return will be welcomed by the Chargers’ defense. The 27-year-old has remained a full-time starter this season, his second straight handling first-team duties. Los Angeles is assured of a wild-card spot, but moving up to the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoff picture could be possible on Sunday. In any case, Gilman’s presence will be key for a Bolts defense which leads the league in points allowed per game (17.6).

Gardner’s campaign will come to an end after 15 games played. He fell short of a Pro Bowl nod for this first time in his young career, but the fourth pick of the 2022 draft remained a critical member of the team’s secondary when healthy. Gardner is eligible for an extension this offseason, and his financial future (which will include a fifth-year option decision in the spring) will be a key point of focus once New York’s head coach/general manager tandem is in place.

Chargers Designate Alohi Gilman For Return

January 1st, 2025 at 5:38pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Chargers have designated safety Alohi Gilman for return from injured reserve and opened his 21-day practice window, per The Athletic’s Daniel Popper.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh said that Gilman is “ready to roll,” indicating that he will be activated before the Chargers’ regular season finale on Sunday.

Gilman landed on injured reserve at the end of November with a hamstring injury after starting 10 of Los Angeles’ first 11 games this season. His return could not come at a better time for the Chargers, who just lost Elijah Molden for the season due to a broken fibula.

Gilman was having a solid season before his injury, though he has not been able to replicate his playmaking from last season. He recorded two interceptions, 10 passes defended, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in 2023; this year, he has just one interception and four passes defended with no fumble production.

If all goes well in practice, the Chargers will use their eight and final regular season IR activation on Gilman, though they will receive two more for the playoffs.

One of those postseason activations could be for wide receiver Simi Fehoko, who has been on injured reserve since early November with an elbow injury.

Harbaugh said that Fehoko is “progressing really well,” per Popper. He has not been a major piece of the Chargers offense this year; he’s caught just six of his 16 targets, though all six have converted first downs for a career-high total of 106 yards. Fehoko has been a contributor on the kick and punt units, so he could see some playoff playing time on special teams if activated.

Chargers Place RB J.K. Dobbins, S Alohi Gilman On IR

November 30th, 2024 at 5:30pm CST by Ely Allen

The Chargers continue to deal with injuries in the running game, placing a running back on injured reserve for the second time this year. A couple weeks after the return of Gus Edwards from IR, J.K. Dobbins has been placed on the injured list. Joining Dobbins in an absence of at least four weeks is safety Alohi Gilman.

It’s frustrating news for Dobbins, who will fail to play a healthy, full season for the first time since his rookie year. Dobbins missed a game with a COVID-19 designation in his rookie season and, since then, has missed the entire 2021 season, nine games the following year, and 16 games last year. Through 12 weeks this season, it finally looked like Dobbins was going to put together a full season. Instead, the 25-year-old will miss the next four games, at least, with a sprained MCL. He’ll hope to come back for a potential playoff run at the end of the season.

Gilman is dealing with a hamstring injury that will cause him to miss his first game of the season since Week 2. Gilman’s in the first year of a new contract, after securing an extension by grading out as the seventh-best safety in the league last year, according to Pro Football Focus. Gilman has slumped in 2024, ranking 80th out of 89 graded safeties, per PFF. He’ll hope to make a return late in the season to try and turn things around.

The Chargers will fill one of the two vacated roster spots by signing veteran safety Tony Jefferson to the 53-man roster from the practice squad. The 32-year-old has extensive starting experience and has appeared in three games this year for Los Angeles. He’ll likely be included in the plan to replace Gilman over the next several weeks.

The team also named cornerback Dicaprio Bootle and linebacker Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste as standard gameday practice squad elevations for this weekend.

AFC West Notes: Broncos, Gallup, Chargers

July 17th, 2024 at 5:03pm CST by Sam Robinson

Rumored to be at an impasse with the Broncos regarding his contract, Courtland Sutton said recently he is not certain he will show for training camp. It should be considered more probable than not the seventh-year wide receiver reports due to the hefty fines (at least $50K per day) that would pile up if he skipped. One sign Sutton is a decent bet to resurface in Denver next week: he attended throwing sessions with Jarrett Stidham and Bo Nix recently. An SMU product who grew up near Houston, Sutton was among the pass catchers in attendance at the Stidham-organized workouts, 9News’ Mike Klis notes.

Sutton showing represents a good sign for Denver fans. Though, the 6-foot-4 target missed nearly the entire offseason program — and time to establish a rapport with the first-round QB — before making a minicamp cameo. Sutton, 28, has angled for a raise. He is tied to a four-year, $60MM deal that runs through 2025. Only $2MM of the former Pro Bowler’s $13MM 2024 base salary is guaranteed, though the rest of it will lock in just before Week 1.

Here is the latest from the AFC West:

Chargers Re-Sign S Alohi Gilman

March 13th, 2024 at 5:12pm CST by Ben Levine

Alohi Gilman is sticking in Los Angeles. The Chargers announced that they’ve re-signed the free agent safety. It’s a multi-year pact for Gilman.

The 2020 sixth-round pick played out his rookie contract with the Chargers, appearing in 57 games. He gradually saw more defensive responsbility through his four seasons in the NFL, culminating in a 2023 campaign where he started all 14 of his appearances while playing in a career-high 928 defensive snaps. He missed three games thanks to a heel injury.

He finished the 2023 season with 73 tackles, three forced fumbles, and a pair of interceptions. Pro Football Focus was especially fond of his performance last season, ranking him seventh among 95 qualifying safeties. This included the fifth-highest score at his position for his coverage ability.

While the Chargers will employ a new coaching staff in 2024, the team will have some continuity in their secondary. Gilman and Derwin James Jr. will once again top the depth chart at the two safety positions, and the latest signee it counting on an organizational turnaround in 2024.

“I’m an underdog story and you can say we’ve been underdogs for awhile and I want to change that,” Gilman told the team website. “I think I’m a good piece to add to that. Coach Harbaugh is all on board with that, his energy is contagious. I’m just super blessed.”

Chargers Rumors: Safety Battle, IOL, WR

July 2nd, 2023 at 8:23pm CST by Ely Allen

As the Chargers look to shape their roster throughout training camp, the coaches will be paying close attention to the safety position, according to Daniel Popper of The Athletic. Obviously, Derwin James is cemented into a starting safety spot, but there is expected to be competition both for the starting job next to him and for a potential fourth safety spot on the roster.

With former starting safety Nasir Adderley retiring upon the expiration of his rookie contract, the starting safety job next to James is wide open. Alohi Gilman enters camp as the expected starter, but second-year player JT Woods will have every opportunity to take the job out from under Gilman. Gilman has nine starts over his first three seasons and has made some significant contributions to the Los Angeles defense in that time. Woods had one start in ten appearances during his rookie year but is expected to take a leap forward in his sophomore season.

Both Gilman and Woods are locks for the 53-man roster, but Popper predicts that only one other safety will join James, Gilman, and Woods in September. He’s boiled that battle down to Raheem Layne and Mark Webb. After signing as an undrafted free agent last year, Layne appeared is six games as a rookie, standing out in training camp and carving out a role on special teams. As a 2021 seventh-round pick, Webb’s rookie season was cut short by injury before he spent the whole of last year on the practice squad. Popper believes that if Webb can stay on the field during camp, he has a serious chance at pushing Layne for that final roster spot.

Here are a couple other rumors coming out of LA:

  • After watching the struggles of backup offensive lineman Brenden Jaimes through his first two seasons, the Chargers appear ready to work out other options. The team seems to be high on Zack Bailey as a more reliable backup guard than Jaimes, according to Popper. Bailey appeared in his first NFL contest last year after going undrafted in 2019, but Los Angeles believes he can be a strong secondary option on the interior. Backing up starting center Corey Linsley is expected to be veteran Will Clapp. Clapp started three games in place of Linsley last season and seemingly has done enough to lock up the backup center job.
  • The final roster battle to watch in camp is at wide receiver, according to Popper. Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Joshua Palmer, and rookie Quentin Johnston are no brainers to make the final roster. Fellow TCU rookie Derius Davis has a really good chance to make the team due to his return abilities. Popper believes that the team could take one more wideout. Jalen Guyton‘s deep-threat ability and size could make a strong case for the job, but he’s coming back from a torn ACL, which could factor into the decision. His main competition is likely Keelan Doss. Doss got regular work this spring with the first-team offense while Williams and Palmer were absent. He made enough noise in OTAs and minicamp that he has a strong chance of pushing Guyton for a final roster spot.

NFL COVID-19 List Updates: 1/1/22

January 1st, 2022 at 4:46pm CST by Ely Allen

Here are the New Year’s Day activations from and placements on the reserve/COVID-19 lists:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: G Oli Udoh

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: CB Bryce Hall

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Chargers Sign Justin Herbert, Wrap Draft Class

July 26th, 2020 at 11:05am CST by Zachary Links

The Chargers have wrapped up their 2020 NFL Draft class, per a club announcement. Quarterback Justin Herbert was the first reported signing, and the rest of the crop followed soon after. The full rundown, per our tracker:

1-6: Justin Herbert, QB (Oregon): Signed
1-23: Kenneth Murray, LB (Oklahoma): Signed
4-112: Joshua Kelley, RB (UCLA): Signed
5-151: Joe Reed, WR (Virginia): Signed
6-186: Alohi Gilman, S (Notre Dame): Signed
7-220: K.J. Hill, WR (Ohio State): Signed

Herbert was a polarizing prospect. Those that are high on the Oregon product believe that his elite arm strength will allow him to succeed as a starter. Others are concerned about his pension for holding on to the ball for too long. The debate between Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa was fierce, but, ultimately, the Dolphins made the decision for the Chargers by selecting the Alabama star No. 5 overall. At No. 6, GM Tom Telesco said that he would have been perfectly happy with either passer.

Herbert will have the unenviable task of eventually stepping into Philip Rivers’ shoes. For now, the 6’6″ rookie will likely begin the year as the QB2 behind Tyrod Taylor.

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