Getty Jalen Ramsey warms up on September 8, 2022 in Inglewood.
Jalen Ramsey may have entered his Friday, November 11 press conference with a hyperwarm football mask over his mouth. But he was still vocally loud and clear about the criticism his defensive coordinator Raheem Morris has faced after the loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The loquacious All-Pro cornerback for the Los Angeles Rams has been vocal on social media regarding his support of the second-year Rams assistant — who has been widely criticized for his defensive play calling in the final minute of the 16-13 Bucs loss. But this time in front of the L.A. media, Ramsey ripped into anyone coming after his DC, even saying “That honestly pisses me off more than if you say something about me.”
‘I’m Not Lying to You, I’m Passionate About That S***’
Ramsey got asked about the critics who have come after Morris for the way the Rams played Tom Brady and the Bucs wide receivers in the final second loss. Ramsey clapped back at those critics.
“‘Rah’ is fire. I’m telling you, ‘Rah’ is fire. People have no clue that ‘Rah’ is fire, for real for real,” Ramsey vehemently said. “The fact that he’s not a head coach somewhere is a blessing for us. ‘Rah’ is the real f****** deal. I’m not lying to you. I’m passionate about that s***.”
Ramsey then helped detail how Morris earns a reputation of being a “player’s coach” type on the field.
“His play calling, the way he allows us to play free, fast and with no fear, the confidence he puts into each of us as players, like we have great players on our defense and he’s still teaching us things. He’s expanded our game to be better than we have in the past,” Ramsey explained. “This man even taught me something this morning just sitting in his office for like 45 minutes just talking about and teaching me something new that nobody ever taught me before. It opened my eyes up and we in the middle of my seventh season and I just learned something new this morning. ‘Rah’ is that good.”
Ramsey Lit Into Criticism He’s Noticed
Ramsey does take scrolls through Twitter, Instagram, etc. and immediately identifies who’s ripping his defensive coordinator. He clapped back at those critics.
“And I see some of the dumb*** criticism like ‘Why weren’t we playing soft’ and certain things like that,” Ramsey said. “He gives us the freedom to play press on certain looks, then off on certain looks. People don’t really understand football like they really do when they get on Twitter and talk and get on social. Y’all don’t understand like y’all think y’all do. Y’all don’t understand the coverages that we play and y’all don’t understand we can be playing a certain coverage on one side but the other side is a completely different coverage. It’s a mixture of things and y’all don’t understand how certain players are playing multiple positions and how they got to know a lot of different techniques and alignments and assignments.”
Ramsey threw in how sometimes, offenses counter a press look from Ramsey and L.A. by showing a more condensed look, preventing him from getting up to jam a receiver and throw off his route. He says Morris helped teach him and the Rams DBs to play an “off” technique that Morris personally taught. Ramsey then used a construction analogy to further explain why it would be hard for the Rams to play one single coverage as social media users have suggested.
“If you build a house, and I’m not a construction worker, but if you build a house, you don’t use a hammer even if you’re hammer is your best tool. ‘Rah’ got toolboxes in his bag. You don’t use the hammer to build the whole damn house. We’re not going to use the same tools every single rep throughout the whole game,” Ramsey said. “And yeah, we didn’t finish the game that we wanted to but we played a hell of a game on defense. We gave up f****** field goals. We still gave up under 17 points. We choose the techniques we want to play.”
Ramsey showed his fiery and passionate side, revealing that it upsets him more when Morris is the one under attack than him.
“If you want to blame me, then blame me. But don’t blame ‘Rah.’ I’m cool with ‘Rah’ being the defensive coordinator for the rest of my career. That honestly pisses me off more than if you say something about me,” Ramsey said.