Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey considers Los Angeles his second home. He has family there, his daughter was born there, and he has many of his best football memories tied to the city.
“At a time when I stopped liking football as much, then I got traded to LA, it just drastically changed everything for me,” Ramsey said Saturday. “It’s amazing, just my whole LA experience. I literally have nothing bad to say about LA or my time in LA at all.”
Ramsey will return to Los Angeles when the Dolphins play the Rams on Monday. This will be his first time facing the team he won a Super Bowl with in 2021.
Although Ramsey was traded to Miami before the 2023 season, he emphasized that he won’t make the game about himself, especially with the Dolphins needing a win. Miami (2-6) is trying to end a three-game losing streak and has lost two games in a row due to walk-off field goals.
“I’ll take the moment in to see some of my former teammates,” Ramsey said, “a lot of guys who I still talk to who hit me up this week. I haven’t responded to them. I’ll take a moment to say hello to all the supporting staff that was in LA, who I built a lot of great relationships with, the training staff, the equipment staff. But I’m going to keep the main thing, the main thing.”
Ramsey was traded to the Rams in the middle of the 2019 season after his relationship with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who had drafted him fifth overall in 2016, began to deteriorate. Ramsey had requested a trade after spending his first four years in Jacksonville.
In his Super Bowl-winning season with the Rams, Ramsey had 77 tackles, four interceptions, and a career-high nine tackles for loss. He was named a first-team All-Pro that season despite playing with sprained AC joints in both shoulders.
“It was definitely torture,” Ramsey said. “Every week I was working to get my body back to a set base. Then during the game, (I was) tearing it down again and then trying to build it up to a set spot for the next game, and then tearing it down again.
It was tough but we had a great team. We had great coaches, was able to prepare well, was able to practice well. You’ll do that if you love this game, which I do, so it was all good.”
Ramsey had a career-high 88 tackles in 2022 before being traded to Miami in a rebuild for the Rams. Los Angeles didn’t want to lose Ramsey or wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who caught a touchdown in the Super Bowl but tore his ACL during the game.
However, after years of bringing in high-profile players with big contracts, the Rams decided to part with the two stars to focus on building for the future.
“You just knew that … I don’t want to say the clock struck midnight, but the core, that team, that senior class, it just doesn’t last forever,” said Rams general manager Les Snead.
Since joining Miami, Ramsey has become a key part of the Dolphins’ defense, playing in various coverages across the field. He has 29 tackles, four passes defensed, and an interception for Miami’s fourth-ranked pass defense.
He has allowed just 10.9 yards per completion and has pressured the quarterback five times on eight blitzes. “One of his superpowers is that he has so much skill set in a unique body,” said Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.
“So he is exposed to a lot of football. He knows a ton about different techniques and fundamentals of defensive players, but also he’s got a strong opinion on offensive players, for sure — what they’re good at and what they’re vulnerable to.”
McDaniel, defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, and many of Ramsey’s teammates often praise his high football IQ. Ramsey explained that it all comes from his passion for the game.
“Everything I do in terms of preparation, in terms of learning more about the game, studying the game,” he said, “it all just stems from me being obsessed with it.”
