Getty Jalen Ramsey looks on at the SoFi Stadium football field during the Los Angeles Rams' open practice on June 10.
Throughout the summer, Jalen Ramsey took on another new role with the Los Angeles Rams. One that could’ve came off as him being a college football coach trying to sell his program to others.
Ramsey became a closet recruiting coordinator for the Rams.
And two notable players he targeted on his personal recruiting trail: Julio Jones and Stephon Gilmore.
Unfortunately for the Pro Bowl cornerback, Jones ended up with the Tennessee Titans and Gilmore isn’t linked to the Rams as a potential destination should a trade from the New England Patriots go down, making Ramsey face an 0-for-2 mark with his recruiting record.
Now, Ramsey ribbed himself and got honest about his own sales pitch ability, sharing his humor and honesty on the Tuesday evening “Catchin’ Fades” podcast with former Ram Aqib Talib.
“I ain’t get nobody I recruited for,” Ramsey told Talib, leading to laughs by both men.
Talib responded by saying, “You ain’t land s***!” through his laugh with the two-time All-Pro.
Ramsey Addresses Jones Trade
The seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver was the first recruiting target for Ramsey when word got out Jones believed he played his final game with the Atlanta Falcons.
Ramsey took to Twitter to try to lure the tall target to California.
A winning culture, a great city, prime time games, LA’s number 1 football team, etc etc..
sounds like the Rams should be a place superstars should want to play football lol 👀🤷🏾♂️
Blessings 🙏🏾
#YesImRecruiting lol I wanna win 🏆
Ultimately, the race to receive a commitment from Jones saw Ramsey and A.J. Brown of the Tennessee Titans as the most aggressive recruiters. The Titans, through Brown providing his sales pitches including leaving a voicemail that became public, won the Jones sweepstakes.
Ramsey took to his honest side: He accepted defeat in the recruiting battle.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think it worked,” Ramsey said. “Because, it’s a business, so it has got to make sense (to lure in Jones).”
Yet, one has to wonder how Brown managed to out-recruit Ramsey and the Rams. Especially when the Rams already had added two Pro Bowlers Matthew Stafford and DeSean Jackson via free agency. Ramsey wasn’t in the room when Brown was trying to win over Jones, but painted a picture to Talib about what he thinks went down between Brown, the Titans and Jones.
“It (the move) is going to take some of your touches and you might not be wide receiver No. 1 no more, it’ll be 1A and 1B,” Ramsey said in picturing the conversation between Brown and the Titans. “But he was like ‘Nah, let’s get Julio!’ So it may have been that type of instance.”
Will Ramsey Stop Recruiting?
To anyone who thinks Ramsey will stick to just locking up receivers and no longer play the role of recruiter, it’s probably best to hold off on that assumption.
Why? Ramsey sounds like he’s not throwing in the towel on his closet recruiting coordinator position on the Rams. The reason: He’s serious about building a championship contender by helping construct the title contender too.
“I don’t care what people be saying. I rock with my teammates and I love my teammates. But if I can get all types of pieces together, I’m going to put all the pieces together,” Ramsey said. “I see some free agents still out there. I hit them up on Twitter and the ‘Gram (Instagram) and say ‘Hey, what do you think of L.A.?'”