Jalen Ramsey is a season and a half faraway from taking part in for the Rams.
However the Miami Dolphins star cornerback’s affect nonetheless runs by means of a Rams protection that adopted lots of the three-time All-Professional’s traits.
4 Rams defensive backs have been Ramsey’s teammates in 2021, when the Rams received Tremendous Bowl LVI. And rookie starters within the secondary and line of defense stated they’ve studied Ramsey since he performed at Florida State.
Rams coach Sean McVay, quarterback Matthew Stafford and Rams receivers will get a close-up have a look at Ramsey on Monday evening when the Rams play the Dolphins at SoFi Stadium.
“You see a lot of the same things that made him such a fun guy to watch do his thing here,” McVay stated. “Hopefully, that won’t be the case on Monday night.”
Ramsey, 30, is the NFL’s top-paid cornerback, a standing he first achieved with the Rams.
On the 2019 commerce deadline, the Rams despatched two first-round draft picks and a fourth-round decide to the Jacksonville Jaguars for Ramsey, the fifth participant chosen within the 2016 draft.
Earlier than the 2020 season, the Rams gave Ramsey a five-year, $120-million extension, and he helped them attain the NFC divisional spherical. The subsequent season, they received the Tremendous Bowl.
However in March 2023, after struggling the worst Tremendous Bowl hangover in NFL historical past, the Rams started a monetary pullback necessitated by their spending to construct the championship roster. Ramsey was traded to the Dolphins for a third-round decide and tight finish Hunter Lengthy.
“There were a lot of tough decisions that were on the horizon for us as a football team, and it didn’t have anything to do with us not wanting him here,” McVay stated. “There were a lot of things that we had to do as a result of some previous years and things of that nature. He understood that.”
In 10 video games final season, Ramsey intercepted three passes. In September, he signed one other extension that when once more made him the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback, with a median wage of $24.1 million per season. In final week’s 30-27 defeat to the Buffalo Payments, he displayed his athleticism by intercepting a go that bounced off a receiver’s chest close to the top zone.
Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey intercepts a go supposed for Payments receiver Keon Coleman (0).
(Gene Puskar / Related Press)
On Saturday, Ramsey informed reporters in Miami that the transfer from Jacksonville to the Rams couldn’t have labored out higher.
“At a time when I stopped liking football as much, then I got traded to L.A, it just drastically changed everything for me,” Ramsey stated. “It’s amazing, just my whole L.A. experience. I literally have nothing bad to say about L.A. or my time in L.A. at all.”
Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula was the crew’s exterior linebackers coach in 2019 when the Rams acquired Ramsey.
The Rams have been making ready for a sport towards the Atlanta Falcons, who featured star receiver Julio Jones. Ramsey walked into the Rams constructing and proclaimed, “I got Julio,” Shula recalled.
“All right,” Shula thought, “We got a good one.”
Ramsey shut down Jones and established himself on a protection led by star defensive lineman Aaron Donald. In 2020, Brandon Staley changed Wade Phillips as defensive coordinator and deployed Ramsey from all angles and positions.
Aubrey Nice, the Rams assistant head coach, was the crew’s defensive backs coach in 2019 and 2020. If Ramsey didn’t get sufficient reps in observe because the season went on, he sometimes inserted himself onto the scout crew, Nice stated.
“He would give the offense the most incredible look that you could ever imagine, and then go play safety — and look incredible at that spot,” Nice stated. “It indirectly showed his teammates how much he really loved the game, and it also showed how much of an unbelievable athlete he really was.”
In 2021, regardless of opponents avoiding his aspect of the sector, Ramsey intercepted 4 passes and helped lead the Rams to victory in Tremendous Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium.
Earlier than the Rams traded Ramsey to the Dolphins, he had performed alongside and/or mentored present Rams cornerbacks Darious Williams, Cobie Durant and Derion Kendrick and safeties Quentin Lake and John Johnson III.
“He just always brought that energy, brought that passion, brought that fire,” Williams stated. “It kind of made you want to play with the same energy, for sure.
“But, I mean, more than that, it’s just keeping up with that competitiveness that he brings.”
Lake, a rookie in 2022, stated Ramsey was bodily and cerebral. He understood how offensive coordinators attacked defenses and particular person gamers.
Lake stated one lesson from Ramsey stood out.
“He said there are guys that are going to make plays, guys that are going to capitalize on their opportunity when it comes,” Lake stated. “But there are also guys where it might not be a play that’s made but it might be a tone that’s set.
“It might be you just absolutely blow up a crack block, or absolutely hit the running back with a good hit. That’s a tone-setting play, and the energy that’s created, it carries on through the defense and it carries through the whole team.
“He said, ‘Who are going to be those guys … that are going to make plays? But if you’re not that guy, who’s going to set the tone?‘”
Jared Verse, the No. 19 decide on this yr’s draft, is an edge rusher however stated he got here of age as a brazen chatterbox on the sector by listening to Ramsey in mic’d up moments. Rookie security Jaylen McCollough stated he was watching Ramsey “when he was wearing [No.] 13,” as a freshman at Florida State.
“He’s just one of the best all-around,” stated McCollough, who has 4 interceptions. “His mindset, his technique, his approach to the game. … Guys that always kind of find the ball. Real-deal football players.”
Rams receivers are embracing the problem of taking part in towards Ramsey.
Cooper Kupp, who sharpened his expertise working towards towards him, described him as “a unicorn” of a soccer participant.
“The physicality and the urgency that he plays with, it makes you meet him there,” Kupp stated. “You can’t hesitate at all.”
Second-year receiver Puka Nacua stated Ramsey was a sensible participant with “the physicality that you build a Madden corner with.”
Stafford can attest to that.
“It still jumps off the tape,” he stated of Ramsey’s expertise. “Some of the plays that he makes down the field, tracking the football, blitzing the quarterback, batting balls down or whatever it is, he’s still got all the tools.”
