Commanders need Odafe Oweh at his disruptive best to upset Seahawks

They're paying him to be a $96 million game-wrecker for their revamped defense, but Odafe Oweh hasn't made much of a dent for the Washington Commanders through two games of the 2026 NFL season. That has to change if there's any chance of pulling off the mother of all upsets against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 3.

Oweh will have to tap back into the form that earned him a bumper payday from Commanders general manager Adam Peters in free agency. The form he displayed by logging 10.5 sacks in just 13 games for the Los Angeles Chargers last season.

There have been precious few signs of Oweh's best form, but he can be a difference-maker against the defending Super Bowl champions.

Pressuring Sam Darnold starts with Commanders unleashing Odafe Oweh

Oweh and fellow edge rusher K'Lavon Chaisson are ideally placed to disrupt both phases of a Seattle offense set to welcome quarterback Sam Darnold back into the fold.

The Commanders still struggle to apply consistent pressure on the pocket, despite their considerable investments in Owen and Chaisson. The latter got a sack against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 2, but an alarming number reported by ESPN's John Keim, citing Next Gen Stats, shows the true extent of Washington's problem.

Darnold has to feel the pressure more often in his first game back from a glute injury. Oweh can make it happen, provided he changes up his pass-rush plan.

The 2021 first-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens shows some nuance attacking protection, but Oweh has been guilty of getting too creative at times. Stellar edge rushers don't need multiple moves to get to quarterbacks, and 6-foot-5, 251-pound Oweh should focus on bull-rushing Seahawks offensive tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas.

That's how Oweh makes this game an unwelcome return for Darnold.

Darnold's backup Drew Lock is winning games, and not as a passenger. He hasn't hidden behind the NFL's toughest and most sophisticated defense, nor spent more time than would be reasonable handing off to the Seahawks' running backs.

Instead, Lock's torched defenses through the air via his prolific connection with receiving ace Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The latter has the skills to obliterate a Commanders' secondary still fatally undermined by struggling starters.

Commanders need Odafe Oweh to continue his impressive start against the run

They can use a more physical defensive back over Smith-Njigba, but Washington's best answer to the league's premier wideout will be to get to Darnold early and often.

Oweh's central to that plan, while he and Chaisson also have a vital role to play in the other crucial phase of this game.

Defensive coordinator Daronte Jones' unit hasn't done enough to make rivals' passers nervous, but the Commanders have shown signs of life against the run. JP Finlay of NBC4 Sports noted those signs against the Cowboys.

Replicating stats as solid as those against the Seahawks won't be easy. Not when veteran power back Emanuel Wilson averaged 4.4 yards on 21 carries against the Arizona Cardinals last week.

Wilson provides a bruising complement to electric rookie Jadarian Price, who has breakaway speed the Commanders should fear. This one-two punch in the backfield is the dynamic engine of the Seahawks' offense, an engine Oweh and Chaisson must wreck.

Chaisson knows all about that challenge after facing the Seahawks in last season's Super Bowl as a member of the New England Patriots.

Chaisson's reminded the Commanders how Seattle's "run game is tremendous. We got to start there first. Stopping the run game, causing havoc in the pocket and getting the quarterback to get off the spot and mess up his progressions," per 7News DC's Scott Abraham.

Those things are easier said than done, but Oweh showed how the Commanders can win against the run with his impressive display in Dallas.

Making plays like this on early downs is the key to unlocking Jones' blitz schemes in clutch moments. Those schemes are the best way for Oweh to help a Jayden Daniels-less Commanders team at least keep this game close.

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