OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Odafe Oweh may have to wait another few weeks to register his first official sack of 2022. But if you ask the Ravens outside linebacker, he’ll tell you he has already had a few. He keeps a running sack total during training camp, even if you can’t actually touch the quarterbacks.
"Every practice I’ll be like, ‘I got three, two. All that stuff’. But then [John] Harbaugh will be like, ‘I don’t think you got this one’. Or Lamar will be like, ‘I don’t think you got this one’. But, you know, I got those ones," he said.
That fire to bring down the quarterback burns bright inside Oweh. He had five sacks in 15 games as a rookie. He wants more. He said during his first professional offseason he mainly worked on his footwork to help get him there.
"Because a lot of times my upper body and my hands were mismatched. They weren’t connected. I was swiping but my feet were wrong. So, I couldn’t get around the edge."
Oweh added that now he is more comfortable. Things are slowing down on the field.
"Being comfortable in who I am and what I bring to the team and stuff like that, and then obviously running around, having a motor, trying to make plays and stuff like that, that’s going to lead to gamedays and everything."
From a second-year standout to a guy in his second tour with the Ravens, outside linebacker Steven Means is trying to keep his NFL career alive.
"Whatever I got left, I’m just going to empty the tank," he said. "Every time I’m out there that’s how I’m trying to be."
Means signed in June as a free agent after four years with the Falcons. His first stint in Baltimore came in 2014 during his second season in the NFL. He credits the Ravens for resurrecting his career after he fell out of love with football during his rookie season in Tampa.
"It was a point where I was almost done with ball and then I got here and started having fun again and started loving the game again and then to leave, they told me I was going to come back eventually," said Means. "Eight years later I wind up coming back."
It's a reunion Means hopes will last.
Follow Shawn Stepner on Twitter @StepnerWMAR and Facebook
