JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Jalen Ramsey said that he wanted out of Jacksonville because of how he was portrayed in the offseason and how he was treated following a loss to the Texans.
Ramsey said that the Jaguars front office pushed him out of Jacksonville by repeatedly singling him out in instances that made him feel disrespected. That led to a trade request and ultimately, him being traded to the Los Angeles Rams last week.
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In an interview with ESPN that aired Sunday, Ramsey said that being called out by executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin for not reporting to voluntary workouts was the first strike. Coughlin said in April that "all of our players should be here," a shot at both Ramsey and linebacker Telvin Smith, both of whom skipped the workouts. Smith later announced his retirement. Coughlin drew public rebuke for the comments, notably from the NFLPA.
.@jalenramsey tells @Realrclark25 what happened in his final days with the Jaguars and why a trade was necessary. pic.twitter.com/EWXR7cT3rz
— ESPN (@espn) October 20, 2019
"Some guys were put in positions of power … didn't care to understand, I guess you could even say this generation of guys or even us as players even us as people in general," Ramsey said in the interview.
Ramsey said that everything came to a head following the Texans game when he was called into a room with four people, and that coach Doug Marrone was not one of them. Ramsey said the tone of the meeting was disrespectful. He and his agent requested a trade following that.
"I did not want to play for those couple of guys in the front office," Ramsey said, without identifying who they were.
Ramsey played just once more for the team, a Thursday night win over Tennessee, before citing a back injury.
ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that three doctors cleared Ramsey to return from the back injury. Jaguars owner Shad Khan had a "heart to heart" with Ramsey and he made very public statements that Ramsey had led Khan to believe that he would play last week against the Saints.
When Ramsey didn't play, citing a back injury that he'd been medically cleared from, that led to the team choosing to deal him. Jacksonville traded Ramsey Oct. 15 to the Rams for a pair of first-round draft picks and a fourth-round pick.