The Ravens made two trades Saturday as they work toward Sunday's 53-man roster deadline, sending defensive tackle C.J. Okoye to the Giants and offensive tackle Diego Pounds to the Chiefs.
Okoye heads to New York for a 2028 seventh-round pick. It's a homecoming of sorts on the coaching side — Harbaugh ran Baltimore's team when Okoye broke into the league last year, before Jesse Minter succeeded him this offseason, so the defensive tackle is walking right back into a familiar voice. The trade also had almost comic timing: Okoye had scooped up a fumble for Baltimore against Washington the night before, and by the next day he already belonged to another franchise. Ravens fans will remember him for a different moment entirely: he's the rookie who filmed Minter's viral rendition of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" at a team dinner earlier this preseason.
Okoye's path to the NFL ran through Nigeria and the league's International Player Pathway Program before he spent two seasons on the Chargers' practice squad, signed with Baltimore in 2025, and worked his way onto the active roster last October, finishing with 15 tackles in 13 games.
The second move sends Pounds, an undrafted rookie tackle out of Ole Miss, to Kansas City. Baltimore didn't get a fixed pick back for him — ESPN's Adam Schefter reported the compensation hinges on which selections the Chiefs still hold once the season wraps up, landing as either a 2027 or a 2028 Day 3 pick depending on how that shakes out.
Both deals accomplish the same basic goal: clearing spots on a roster that has to be trimmed to 53 players by Sunday's deadline, while still recouping something rather than losing either player to a straight roster cut. Baltimore is widely expected to continue shedding bubble players over the next 24 hours as the deadline approaches.