Jalen Ramsey knows no limits when it comes to speaking his mind, and the star cornerback proved this week that he is willing to share his opinion — no matter how insulting — on just about any player in the NFL.
In a highly entertaining interview with Clay Skipper of GQ Magazine, Ramsey unloaded on Josh Allen, Joe Flacco and several other quarterbacks. Basically, the Jacksonville Jaguars star feels there are a handful of good QBs in the league and the rest range from average to “trash.” Let’s begin with Ramsey’s thoughts on Buffalo Bills rookie Josh Allen.
“I think Allen is trash. I don’t care what nobody say. He’s trash,” Ramsey said. “And it’s gonna show too. That’s a stupid draft pick to me. We play them this year, and I’m excited as hell. I hope he’s their starting quarterback. He played at Wyoming. Every time they played a big school—like, they played Iowa State, which is not a big school in my opinion because I went to Florida State, and he threw five interceptions, and they lost by a couple touchdowns or something like that.✞ He never beat a big school. If you look at his games against big schools, it was always hella interceptions, hella turnovers. It’s like: Yo, if you’re this good, why couldn’t you do better? He fits that mold, he’s a big, tall quarterback. Big arm, supposedly. I don’t see it, personally.”
Ramsey had good things to say about Lamar Jackson, who he feels should have been picked much higher than No. 32 overall in the draft. And judging by his opinion of Joe Flacco, Ramsey believes Jackson will be the starting quarterback in Baltimore sooner rather than later.
“I would’ve picked [Lamar Jackson] earlier than 32. I think he’s gonna do a good job,” Ramsey said. “Especially with the [Baltimore Ravens’] offensive coordinator — he likes running quarterbacks, likes that read option. And just being honest about it, [Joe] Flacco sucks. I played him two years in a row. He sucks.”
Among the QBs who don’t “suck,” in Ramsey’s opinion, are Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Marcus Mariota, Tyrod Taylor, Kirk Cousins and Derek Carr. He believes DeShaun Watson and Carson Wentz will be MVP candidates for years to come, but he’s still unsure about Jimmy Garoppolo. Ramsey said he has seen enough to believe Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan are nothing special.
“Big Ben, I think he’s decent at best … It’s not Big Ben, it’s [Antonio Brown]. Big Ben slings the ball a lot of the time. He just slings it, and his receivers go get it,” he said. “He has a strong arm, but he ain’t all that. I played him twice last year, and he really disappointed me. He’ll be in the Hall of Fame and all that.
Before discussing Ryan, Ramsey began with, “What’s the Atlanta quarterback’s name?”
“I think Matt Ryan’s overrated. You can’t tell me you win MVP two years ago, and then last year, you a complete bust, and you still got Julio Jones? There’s no way that should ever happen. I don’t care. You know what that tells me? That tells me [Offensive Coordinator Kyle] Shanahan left, went to San Francisco, got Garoppolo, made Garoppolo this big thing. And now Garoppolo is a big name—and now [Matt Ryan] has this bad year? Alright, well, was it really you, or was it your coach? He was doing what was asked of him and it was making him look really, really good.”
The entire interview is worth a read, and players who thrive on bulletin board material are going to find it very useful. While Ramsey’s comments about Allen were the most harsh, we shouldn’t be surprised given the way he trolled Allen and the Bills earlier this offseason. In terms of trash talk, Ramsey makes Richard Sherman look bashful.
