Since arriving in the NFL as a top-five pick in the 2016 draft, Jalen Ramsey has been highly effective on the field and wildly entertaining when he steps outside the white lines. Ramsey is already one of the best defensive backs in the NFL and the former Florida State star also isn’t shy about expressing his opinion, positive or negative, about a wide variety of topics.
That legendary candor was on full display this week in an interview with Clay Skipper of GQ and, while the entire thing is definitely worth a read for full context on Ramsey’s thoughts, he centers on opposing quarterbacks in a striking way. Along the way, Ramsey delivers his viewpoint on more than a dozen quarterbacks but two signal-callers caught his wrath more than the others: Buffalo Bills rookie Josh Allen and Baltimore Ravens veteran Joe Flacco.
“I think [Buffalo Bills draft pick Josh] Allen is trash,” Ramsey said. “I don’t care what nobody say. He’s trash. 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.”
While that was staggeringly direct in its own right, Ramsey wasn’t done.
“He played at Wyoming,” Ramsey said of Allen. “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.”
Yikes. This burn is especially great because Allen’s game Ramsey is mentioning was against Iowa, so he got in a dig at Iowa State for no reason at all and made the fine people of Iowa City mad by mixing them up with their rivals. He is an artist.
On one hand, it isn’t as if Ramsey is alone in his skepticism towards Allen, as many NFL observers questioned the former Wyoming quarterback’s status as a first-round pick and potential “savior” of the Bills franchise. Still, it is another thing entirely to eviscerate an opposing player in print on this level, with Ramsey holding exactly nothing back when giving his perspective.
Later in the same interview, Ramsey praised Ravens rookie Lamar Jackson as a player who was under-drafted in 2018 but, in the same breath, he took a flying shot at the Ravens starter in Flacco.
“And just being honest about it, [Joe] Flacco sucks,” Ramsey said. “I played him two years in a row. He sucks.”
While Ramsey didn’t go on and on about Flacco — or Colts signal caller Andrew Luck, who he does not think is “that good” — in the way that he did about Allen, it is stunning to see a young player giving that kind of direct analysis of a veteran (and Super Bowl winning) quarterback. Much like the way Allen is perceived, it isn’t a secret that Flacco hasn’t been particularly good since his now-legendary run to the Super Bowl but Ramsey’s unwillingness hold back is oddly endearing and, in short, incredibly entertaining.
Finally, Ramsey centered on a former NFL MVP in Matt Ryan, saying that the Falcons quarterback is “overrated” and attributing his top-level success to now-former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.
“You can’t tell me you win MVP two years ago,” Ramsey said. “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.”
If Jalen Ramsey wasn’t an incredible talent between the white lines, this kind of interview would be crushed and, in some corners, it likely still will be. Fortunately for him, Ramsey is that good and, as long as he can back up his words with high-end play on the field, fans get the best of both worlds.
(Via GQ)
