Jalen Ramsey – July 25, 2023
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Tuesday, July 25, 2023
CB Jalen Ramsey
(How was the summer? What did you do this summer?) – “Played with my kids. That’s about it.”
(Physically how are you feeling after kind of being limited during the spring?) – “I’m good. I’m good.”
(What’s this day like when you’re starting a new training camp with a new team?) – “Football as usual. Work as usual. Just being back with everybody. My day is the same as everybody else’s. There isn’t anything special to it.”
(Do you expect to go full-go during training camp?) – “Yeah, I’m sure I will. I’m sure we’ll have a good plan for me.”
(This team has heightened expectations. You dealt with that in Jacksonville after you guys went to the AFC Championship. You dealt with that in L.A. How has this team handled this from what you’ve observed so far?) – “It’s just Day 1 of training camp. We’ve got to do the work first. The work comes first. When you put the work in, you don’t really worry about none of that. You don’t really worry about what other people say. You know what you have done to prepare and you just stand on that and whether it works out for you or not, you know if you put the work in.”
(In June you were telling us that people’s expectations, you could use it as motivation – positive or negative, if they believe in you or if they don’t believe in you. Are you seeing any evidence of that? Did you see evidence of that from this team in OTAs or minicamp that they’re aware of the heightened expectations?) – “Yeah, maybe, but the work comes first. We’ve just got to focus on the work right now and then everything will fall in place how it needs to.”
(Acclimating to the weather, it seems a little hotter out there, but how are you guys managing yourselves just trying to stay physically fit, trying to stay hydrated and things like that?) – “It’s just our job. We can’t ever control the weather so we just go do our job. Work through it. It’s all good. It’s hot for everybody.”
(How does this compare to Jacksonville?) – “I don’t know, man. I haven’t been to Jacksonville in a while. I’m not really worried about that either, to be honest with you. I’m worried about right here in the present. So I’m not going to compare or nothing to any other team that I’ve been on honestly. Just got to work.”
(I meant the weather, I’m sorry.) – “The weather? I don’t remember. I haven’t been there in a while.”
(When you look at this defense, what makes you like most optimistic? What are you most looking forward to with this defense and the pieces you have?) – “The whole defense really. I’ve been a part of his defense for the past three years so I kind of know how to play it. I know what’s needed to play this defense and be one of the best defenses in the league and be elite. And we got all the pieces – edge rushers to the secondary. We even got the linebackers and all that. Like I said, I don’t compare, but I look at other teams I’ve been a part of and I feel like we, on paper, we stack up well. But the work comes first.”
(With your experience and knowledge of this defense, do you kind of feel a responsibility to be almost like a coach on the field for the rest of the guys who maybe are new in the system?) – “Yeah, I don’t force it though. If they need my help or guidance or if I see something that can help them or guide them, then I’ll give them my input, but everybody can kind of figure it out on their own and people like figuring things out on their own. And that’s what OTAs are for and that’s what training camp is for, to kind of figure some things out. You can’t micromanage or baby grown men through stuff. We’re going to get it. We’re going to put the work in.”
(In your experience, what separates the truly elite great defenses from the average or so-so defenses?) – “You’ve got to have the pieces. That’s of course, right? You’ve got to have the talent which I believe we have, but then you got to – I just keep saying it – we’ve got to put the work in. It’s a crazy amount of work that we’ve got to put in, but it’ll all pay off and then we’ve just got to play as one. We’ve got to have unity as a defense and as a team. So those are all things that we’ll for sure work on during this training camp.”
(One of your former Florida State teammates happens to be in free agency, has flirted with Miami. Saw it on social media. Dalvin Cook. What do you think adding Dalvin Cook to this team would do for this offense?) – “Any of my friends, I always want to play on the same team as any of my friends or any elite player, but that ain’t none of my business to be honest with you. I’m here with these guys that are here currently. If we add ‘DC 4,’ I’d be happy. I promise you I will and I’ll come up here and I might give you a longer little speech about it. But right now, I’m focusing on myself and my teammates who are in the building right now and we’re going to get after it.”
(You and WR Tyreek Hill have kind of been somewhere where this team hasn’t gone being the Super Bowl. How does that experience kind of help you in training camp to kind of maybe fine-tune things or offer advice or insights into some of your teammates?) – “A lot of will be instilled right here in training camp and we’ll start doing a lot of things, but it doesn’t end right here. We’ve got to continue being leaders throughout the year and helping our teammates throughout the year because there will be adversities throughout this training camp, throughout the season, that we’ll have to overcome and help those guys overcome, and kind of realize the big picture and always have goal in our mind of what we’re striving for as a team. But other than that, just every day. Just every day working and every day helping guys as much as we can, but just working. Being present and working.”
(You were the highest-rated corner in Madden. I think it’s the fifth time it’s happened in your career. I know it’s just a video game, but where do you kind of see your respect as the top or one of the top corners in the game at this stage?) – “The top. Yeah, about right, but I’m never one to – like I don’t care if I was a 70 on Madden. I’m going to still play the game, I’m going to still edit myself to 99 anyway. (laughter) Like I don’t really care. That doesn’t really matter to me, but it’s more so about being on a video game. Like that’s a blessing. Like as kids, I was playing Xbox and PlayStation. Being on a video game, I don’t necessarily have to create myself. I’ve got to edit myself a little bit, but I ain’t necessarily have to create myself so it’s a blessing. I don’t take that for granted. Like, ‘oh, they gave me this rating or that rating.’ It’s a blessing to me regardless. It’s cool.”
(So what do you edit?) – “99 everything. (laughter) For sure. 99 everything.”
(You always hear the statement “iron sharpens iron.” How much do you look forward to those one-on-one battles with WR Jaylen Waddle and WR Tyreek Hill? You and CB Xavien Howard?) – “Yeah, I look forward to it a lot.”
(A minute ago, when someone said “one of the top corners,” you corrected him. You said “the top.” How important is that to you to be the top?) – “Well, I have been for many years in my career, so it’s very important to me. I think people get things confused sometimes when guys show an individual goal for themselves or have individual hype for themselves. But honestly, it’s like, why wouldn’t I? Right? Why wouldn’t I want to be the very best and me being the very best is going to also help the team be successful. So I’m always going to strive to be the best and I got other guys in the secondary who should be doing the same thing and probably are doing the same thing. You ask ‘X’ (Xavien Howard), I hope ‘X’ will say he’s the best corner. You ask the safeties, I hope they will say they’re the best. If you ask me honestly, I’m going to say I’m the best DB in the league, the best DB in this secondary, all of that. And I’m going to challenge those guys to push me and make me prove it, right? And I’m going to challenge them to do the same. So you got to have that pride about yourself, especially playing this position. Like you got to have that ultra confidence in yourself or it’s going to be over for you. So yeah, I’m going to always have pride in what I do.”
(Just kind of on that same topic. Earlier this offseason, there were some of the younger corners like Sauce Gardner and some other guys debating that topic, best corner and whatnot. How do you maybe see some of these younger corners coming up and how you compare to your longevity and consistency?) – “To be honest with you, I never compare myself to them. Just because we all are our own individuals. And there’s this running thing that DBs hate on each other. and I actually don’t think that’s true to be honest with you. Like it’s a competitive fire where each individual should think that they’re the best, but you can ask – honestly, I challenge y’all to ask any of them like any young DB who does hit me up – Sauce (Gardner), Pat (Surtain), like literally anybody. I’m always sharing my knowledge with them. I’m always giving them positive words, showing them some love. I’m never tripping about that. What they do doesn’t control my career. They don’t control what I do. It doesn’t control my legacy or anything like that. I got to do what I do. So to answer your question, I just don’t compare myself to them. I wish them luck unless they’re playing us, right? But I got to do what I do regardless. Like it doesn’t really matter to me. I hope all of them do their thing to be honest with you.”
(A question about the current NFL. It seems like at this point of the season, teams put more emphasis on joint practices than preseason games to get work for veterans, experienced players like yourself. I’m wondering what are your thoughts on that? Is a joint practice more beneficial to a veteran player than a preseason game?) – “I’ll let the coaches handle all the logistics stuff like that. I just go out there and play whenever I got to play. I don’t care where we at. I don’t care if we’re in the offseason, in joint practices, in preseason, in the regular season, playoffs. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to play regardless. But I’m sure there’s benefits. There’s pros and cons to everything, right? And I’m sure there’s some benefits of being able to have joint practices and get a certain situation to work in, in certain times that you might not be able to get during a game just because the game has so many highs and lows that go on and unpredictable things. So I’m sure there’s benefits to it.”
