A Warm Welcome to Pittsburgh for Jalen Ramsey
It was October 8th, 2017. The Pittsburgh Steelers were 3-1, and carried lofty expectations into a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, in Pittsburgh. What took place that day left a sour taste in my mouth for a number of reasons. First and foremost, our lord and savior Ben Roethlisberger threw 5 INTs, 2 of them pick 6s, en route to a disgusting 30-9 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars who, at that point, hadn’t beaten the Steelers in over a decade. The other reason I so badly hated that loss was because of this long, cocky, PROBLEM CHILD motherfucker by the name of Jalen Ramsey that stood on the Jaguars sideline. He had his viral “you tell me” moment a year earlier, and he was quickly solidifying himself as a legit lockdown corner in football, and I was actively rooting against that happening with every fiber of my being (just hater behavior against Jalen the football player, not Jalen the man).
Fast-forward a few months later, and the 2nd-seed Pittsburgh Steelers, coming off a first round playoff bye (which was a thing in those days) were set to face off against the 3rd-seed Jaguars, again in Pittsburgh; this time for an opportunity to advance to the AFC Championship Game to face Tom Brady and the Patriots. We lost 45-42. We had legit Super Bowl aspirations that season, and twice we lost to the Blake-Bortles-led Jaguars, both times in Pittsburgh, both times in embarrassing fashion. I hated the 2017 Jacksonville Jaguars, and I considered Jalen Ramsey to be at the forefront of that hate.
Evidently I wasn’t praying hard enough for his downfall. He has put together what I would consider to be a Hall of Fame career, assuming he isn’t getting ready to fall off the face of the Earth from a physical standpoint. Ramsey is a 1x Super Bowl Champion(LVI), 3x First-Team All-Pro, 7x Pro Bowler, and has appeared in 135 games, accumulating 24 INTs. In the generation following the Darelle Revis’ of the world, or the Champ Baileys, or the Charles Woodsons, I think Jalen Jamsey has firmly cemented himself near the forefront. Pro Football Reference considers an “Average” Hall of Fame DB Career to include 1 Championship, 3x AP1, 7x PB, 195 G, 50 INTs. He has already accomplished all the hard shit.
Jalen Ramsey will turn 31 in October this season, which is not exactly an ideal age for a CB getting paid a lot of money this season, and through 2027. Ramsey has spoken publicly about wanting to take the Charles Woodson career arc and play safety late in his career, something he is certainly capable of doing. We’re not there yet, though. This guy can still cover at a high level, and he’s not exactly your average corner (nor is he getting paid like an average corner), either. If there’s a narrative to be broken (like, say, one about 30+ y/o corners being trash), it would take a guy like Jalen Ramsey to break it, and he’s capable. Actually, PFF ranked Jalen Ramsey 14th in their recent ‘top 32 CB ranking’ ahead of the 2025 season, putting him near guys like Cooper Dejean and Denzel Ward. Needless to say, football folks hold him in high regard. This guy made so many good plays on the field in 2024, and he figures to bring a lot left in the tank to Pittsburgh.
There’s not a lot about Ramsey’s film that I don’t like, so let’s just quickly get those things out of the way so that I can be delusional again. Interestingly enough, I’m going to show yinz an unbelievable play by him (above) to talk about something that shows up often on his film that I don’t like. And, this is going to sound insane since this is largely a post about how good Jalen Ramsey the corner is, but he gets beat A LOT. In the example above, he’s lined up man-to-man against TE Hunter Henry, and I actually love everything about this rep initially. Good leverage. Physical at the top of the route. However, you can see on that 2nd move, Henry gets a pretty significant amount of separation. This happens a lot. Guys are often able to separate from Ramsey. It is certainly a weakness of his, but then it has kinda always been that way for him. He has always made up for it with an innate ability to recover with quick eyes, quick feet, and quick hands. He is certainly among the best in the league at this. Still, like every other corner in the history of football (especially those in their 30s [sorry Jalen]), he is beatable.
While we’re talking “weaknesses”, I might as well acknowledge that in 2024, he had a career-worst 19.4% missed tackle rate. Here’s a terrible example of him trying to tackle Garrett Wilson from last year. There’s lots of other bad reps by him from last year against Wilson, Rodgers, and the Jets, so best believe he’s got that week one game in New York circled. I would consider something like a 14% missed tackle rate to be pretty mediocre for a CB, so needless to say I think 19% is bad. Still, tackling has historically been a strength of Ramsey’s game, and that Dolphins’ secondary is pretty fuckin awful; probably the worst in the NFL right now even with Minkah Fitzpatrick. It’s hard for a corner to do his job well when he doesn’t have faith that the other guys in the secondary aren’t doing their job well. For example, he might play his leverage differently against an elite receiver even though he has safety help if he doesn’t have faith that his safety will be in the correct spot. Good luck tackling under those circumstances. The addition of Jalen Ramsey probably makes the Steelers’ secondary one of the best in the NFL, and the Steelers were the best tackling team in football last year. He’ll be in a much healthier environment this year, and I’d bet the house that his missed tackle rate returns to normal.
Sidebar:
I just showed yinz a bad missed tackle by Jalen Ramsey from a January game in New York. I also watched a Dolphins’ November game in Green Bay in which the Dolphins’ defense missed 20 tackles, SEVERAL of them credited to Jalen Ramsey (I noted at least 3). Ramsey did play High School ball in Tennessee, but since then he has played at Florida State, then in Jacksonville, then in Los Angeles, then in Miami. I’m not saying that Jalen Ramsey can’t tackle in cold weather, I’m just giving you facts. It also took a $1.5M pay raise for Ramsey to agree to come to Pittsburgh. All noteworthy things in my opinion. If I’m right and the weather is an issue for him, I hope he acclimates quickly, because there’s some very cold football games for him on the horizon.
Alright, enough negative. This (above) is my favorite play of Jalen Ramsey’s that I watched ahead of writing this post. Allow me to paint a picture: this is the first play of the 4th quarter. The Jags are up 17-14. It’s 4th down with one yard to go, and the Jags are going for it. They hand off to Travis Etienne who attempts to work the left outside edge, but he’s met by Jalen Ramsey, along with a wall of Dolphins, so he works backs right, and Ramsey stays with him all the way back to the opposite side of the field and makes an immaculate tackle for -2 yards. Phins ball. If he did this while he was wearing the black and gold, I would’ve been buying someone a new wall, because I would’ve smashed through whichever one was in front of me. $26.6M guaranteed? Yeah, go ahead and sign me up. Dawg.
How ‘bout this (above): working through the block against his new teammate DK Metcalf, to stuff the screen throw to Tyler Lockett. The word “versatile” has been thrown around a lot to describe Jalen Ramsey, and that couldn’t be more true. It’s a real treat to be talking about a newly acquired corner’s strengths, and to be starting off with a stuff on a 4th down run play -2 yards, and a read and react to a screen pass -2 yards. Run plays, check downs, screens, backwards passes, throws to the flat…if you’re attempting to work something underneath or run the ball to Jalen Ramsey’s side of the field, he’s going to give you a tough time. He’s a true asset in that regard, and dare I say elite for his position.
On versatility, it’ll be interesting to see how the Steelers utilize Ramsey. They already have two guys on their roster in Darius Slay and Joey Porter Jr. that are at their best when they’re lined up outside, and the Steelers have holes at both NB and FS. Ramsey has the skills to take over in both roles, but he’s getting paid like he should be lining up against the best of the best. It makes the most sense to me to just plug and play him because of his versatility rather than force someone out of a role they’re comfortable in because of his contract. But, I’m not a coach, and there’s literally NOTHING out there about how the Steelers plan to use him, so it’ll remain a mystery until training camp next month.
Perhaps he will be asked to play some outside corner for us, especially when Slay and/or JPJ come off the field. Perhaps he will be asked to play a ton outside. Either way, he’s still an extremely capable cover corner, so I’m not worried about it. Here’s him (above) going step-for-step with DK Metcalf with basically no safety help. Geno Smith looked that way, too, but didn’t like what he saw. If you put your average corner in that exact same situation, Geno Smith is throwing that ball and giving DK a chance. This, however, is Jalen Ramsey.
No doubt, the loss of Minkah Fitzpatrick stings in a very real way. His steady presence in center field was something I, evidently, took for granted, as that hole at safety now looms ominously. However, because of Ramsey’s ability to play so many different roles at a high level, I do believe the Steelers’ defense is better because of this trade (at least for 2025). Suddenly, our CB room is maybe the deepest in the league, making us a dangerous team to throw against, and I think our run defense also got better with this move. I don’t know if Jalen Ramsey is still going to be able to produce at a high level two years from now. I kinda doubt it, but maybe. I do know this: the Steelers made this move with intentions to be a better football team in 2025 than they were in 2024, and I’m fairly certain they succeeded, although time will tell. Welcome to Pittsburgh, Jalen Ramsey. I can’t wait to put on a Jalen Ramsey jersey for the first time.
All videos via NFL Pro.
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