Bortles, Caldwell and Coughlin: Everything Jalen Ramsey Said About His Tenure and Departure From the Jaguars
Jalen Ramsey hasn’t been a Jacksonville Jaguar since 2019. And even then, that year was primarily in name only. But his three and a quarter season’s with the Jaguars were filled with so many dramatic moments, that they continue to reverberate to this day.
The latest came on Friday, when former cornerback Aqib Talib shared the newest episode of his podcast, Catching Fades, in which he spoke with Ramsey about his time in Jacksonville.
Ramsey has never been shy when talking about this time in Jacksonville, both the good and the bad. The former Florida State corner was drafted by the Jags fifth overall in the 2016 NFL Draft, the highest corner drafted that year and the highest the Jags had ever taken a corner. He was named to two Pro-Bowl’s while with the Jaguars, and helped Jacksonville break a playoff drought as one of the leaders on the 2017 AFC South Championship team.
While on Talib’s podcast, Ramsey discussed Tom Coughlin, the playoff run in 2017, Blake Bortles and his tumultuous departure. Here is a breakdown of everything he said about the Jaguars on the podcast episode.
You can see the full episode at the bottom of the page.
The team didn’t like Tom Coughlin
This isn’t a huge shocker. It’s been one of the worst kept secrets that players weren’t fans of Coughlin or his totalitarian tactics. It evolved to a point that the NFLPA become involved and discouraged free agents from signing with Jacksonville, largely because of Coughlin’s regime.
As Ramsey recalled, that distaste for the Vice President gave the team a sense of camaraderie and the ability to band together against a common enemy. Really, he credits their dislike for Coughlin for inspiring the chemistry that drove the 2017 AFC South Championship.
“We was young, we were hungry,” Ramsey says of one of the leagues best defenses that year. “It remind me a little bit of Florida State, a little bit but it was, it was a little bit different.”
The Jaguars, perpetually a young team due to constant rebuild, put together a front seven and secondary that season that allowed the second fewest yards per game in the regular season (286.1 yards per game). On offense, they were led by a thousand yard rushing rookie in Leonard Fournette. Forever the underdogs, they went as far as to have the New England Patriots on the rope in the AFC Championship game.
“As a whole team, we came together and we created that bond that you were just talking about. And that team chemistry that you were just talking about, that we was gonna fight for each other, ride for each other, you can, because to be honest, we didn’t like Tom Coughlin, that’s what it came down to.
“That was his first year in there and we were a sorry team the year before so you know—when something new come in and they go—especially when you that sorry, they gonna go complete opposite—so we went from being like relaxed, having a relaxed coaching staff and a coaching staff they let us be, you know, adults and live our life and just kind of be who we were.
“But we were too young for that at the time, we was too young to know how to, to really treat that. So we took advantage of it and that's why we weren't good. So when they brung in Tom Coughlin, he was, he went complete opposite of that…it turned into, we didn’t feel like half the stuff he was trying to implement was even about football, you know I mean, ‘you got to wear white socks.’ Like, ‘coach it don’t matter if I wear white socks or black socks, the receiver gonna get shut down regardless.’”
It’s a classic parenting technique; give the kids a common enemy so they’ll band together. And it worked.
“I mean nobody really liked him or rocked with him. So, we decided like as a team like 'man, forget them. Forget what they doing up top. Let's go, like, let's make this about us. We got to do this, we all gotta go through the bullshit, we all gotta do this, we all gotta do that. Let’s play their game, but really let's play our game.”
Ramsey goes on to tell stories about practices being some of the toughest he’s been a part of and the defense pushing the offense to mimic their demeanor. So even as the team rallied against Coughlin, they found a way to take that mutual dislike and turn it into a common goal, leading to one of the greatest Jaguars seasons in franchise history.
But it wasn’t enough, and Ramsey wasn’t shy about pointing out what he felt was the team’s shortcoming.
One Piece Away
“We felt like we was a piece away; like we felt like, ‘we right there but we need to—this next year we need to capitalize on it.”
The piece of course being, quarterback. The Jaguars drafted UCF passer Blake Bortles with the third overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. He was named the starting quarterback after Week 3 his rookie season, and went on to set team records in everything from passing yards and touchdowns in a single season, to sacks taken and interceptions thrown.
“You know sometimes when it ain’t really said but it's a known thing, you know, around the locker room, around the city really, so it was like a no brainer, like ‘this next coming year we just need to go in and get that extra little piece because y'all really, what you're doing is handicapping us, and especially handicapping the offense because of the way y'all call certain plays. The way y'all really got teams stacking the box on Leonard [Fournette] now, just because y'all not fully confident in Blake to do certain things.’”
The Jaguars instead signed Bortles to a three year extension. Still, Ramsey says players saw the team’s draft pick at No. 29 overall and who was available.
“So we thinking alright maybe—our defense is solid, we had got most of our pieces back. We decided we just need that one piece. So we had a draft pick. And we ended up, we ended up getting a defensive lineman. Which cool, whatever, right? But we were solid on the D-line. Everybody knows ‘Sacksonville’ was that deal. And then, Lamar [Jackson] was still on the board at the time too. Lamar didn’t go till like four or five picks after that. So, at the time [players] like, ‘we tripping, we crazy. You know what I mean? Like we tripping around here.’”
Jackson was taken at No. 32 overall by the Baltimore Ravens. The defensive tackle taken instead of Lamar Jackson was Taven Bryan.
No Support For Bortles
Once the team passed on a quarterback in the 2018 draft and threw their support behind Blake Bortles, Ramsey says the team did too. He was their quarterback; the best chance for success was to support him. But as the season went on and Bortles began to falter, Ramsey says the support for Bortles fell in the front office, which trickled down into the locker room.
“We like alright we just gonna ride with it. That's our quarterback, we're gonna ride with him regardless. We're gonna turn it up to another to another level, we gonna try to get him as good as we can get him so we can take that next step.”
Bortles started the season 3-1, and was on pace for another high powered year. But he also struggled with turnovers. And during a Week 16 win against the Miami Dolphins, Bortles was part of a game of musical quarterbacks.
“They really messed with his confidence really by—they like, benched him and brung him back, then bench him again. Like, they just was mishandling him to be honest so it kind of threw our whole team off. You know you can't do that to the quarterback, not the quarterback position.
"We rocked with Blake. Like we knew what he was, with him as far as his talent and what he was going to give us on the field. But we rock with him. We was trying to pour that confidence in him but you know if your teammates trying to pour confidence in him but then the coach pulling him and doing all of this, it ain’t gonna do that for you. So it just went downhill and some of the same BS was still going on around—just the stupidity.”
Denied Early Extension Conversation
While Coughlin and the 2018 draft bothered Ramsey, they were more team problems. The beginning of the end for his personal relationship with the Jaguars began ahead of the 2019 season. The team picked up his fifth year option, but the Pro Bowl corner wanted to go ahead and shore up his future in Jacksonville.
He told his agent during the offseason, “in a place like Jacksonville, I feel like I've earned the right, and I feel like I should be at least—we should start some negotiations of an early extension. Kind of like Tre White just did an early extension a year early in Buffalo. You feel like if you in a place like that potentially and you ain't got no other money spread nowhere else—you got you it there, it can happen—then why not start this conversation?”
In what has become an infamous move, Ramsey went so far as to arrive for training camp in a Brinks truck. The message was clear; pay me.
“I felt like I was one of the key pieces of the team so I'm like, ‘just see what they talking about, just reach out to see what they talking about.’”
The team declined negations and Ramsey began to wonder if it was time to look elsewhere.
Lack Of Direction and Content With Rebuild
Despite the storybook ideal of “building something from nothing,” players want to go to a contender more often than not. After the 2017 season, the Jaguars looked like a contender. Even after the 2018 season, which was a let down following the playoff run, there were still pieces in place to build something lasting.
Then there wasn’t.
“They didn't keep our team together no more. They broke out, they broke down everything. Our whole secondary was gone. It was like, only me left, really. Me and AJ [Boyue] at the time and AJ, he was hurt like here and there. Our safeties, let them go. Our nickel, let them go. They just was mishandling everything I felt like.
“So I'm like ‘man what direction are we really going? Are they content with trying to be a rebuild team? What are they doing?’ Week one, we went got embarrassed by Kansas City.
“Week two—when everything popped off [is] where it was like my last straw.”
The Houston Game
Ramsey went on for over 1,000 words and over five minutes about everything that happened next, so we’re going to sum it up for you.
Heading into Week 2 against the Houston Texans, mid-week meetings consisted of matchup talks, concerning Ramsey lining up against the Texans star receiver, DeAndre Hopkins. Coaches said Ramsey would win some matchups and Hopkins would win some matchups. That’s pretty much a given in any game. But Ramsey saw it as a lack of confidence from his coaches.
“I feel like y’all should be saying it differently. Like ‘Jalen gonna lock up D-Hop.’ I feel like as a coach that’s how you should talk…but on the opposite end, [they're saying], our D-line, y’all really need to help out this week.
“Like we got battles, we go at it, but I can strap [Hopkins]…y’all disrespecting me.”
Ramsey asked his agent if he was getting offended for nothing and his agent talked him down. But he admits, “it still ain’t sitting with me right.”
Ramsey for his part proved he was right in the game, holding Hopkins to five receptions for 40 yards and no touchdowns, his second lowest output of the season. But it was a called catch that really served as the catalyst for Ramsey’s departure from the Jaguars.
A pass to Hopkins was ruled complete. Ramsey said he got his hand in there and knocked it off and it wasn’t a catch. He implored then head coach Doug Marrone to throw the challenge flag. Marrone refused and the two were engaged in a sideline scuffle. Both Marrone at the time and Ramsey now brushed off the sideline exchange as nothing more than flared passions in a game.
“Those things, they happen all the time,” Marrone told reporters the following Monday. “They really do. I think now they’re a little bit more publicized but ever since I played there’s always stuff that goes on during the course of the game.”
Ramsey backed up his former coaches explanation, telling Talib, “it is what it is, players have disagreements with their coaches all the time and you keep it pushing, you play the rest of the game.
Later in the game, Marrone threw the challenge flag for a pass interference that wasn’t overturned. The action didn't set well with Ramsey who felt untrusted. But the defense held Deshaun Watson and company, the Jaguars kept it close due to—as Ramsey describes—“[Gardner Minshew] did his little thing, did his little magic,” and the Jags were in a position to win the game. With the clock ticking down, theyscored a touchdown and needed to either kick the PAT to go to overtime and go for a 2-point conversion.
Ramsey says players on the sideline asked Marrone to kick the PAT and let them win it in overtime. The defense knew they could hold the Texans off. Marrone wanted to go for the win. The coach went to the defense and explained his decision, which Ramsey says he “really respected" even if he didn't agree.
The two-point conversion failed.
According to Ramsey, a PR representative told the corner he didn’t have to do media after the game if he didn’t want to, since the conversation would naturally go to the sideline exchange. Ramsey accepted the out.
In the end though, nothing that happened on the field was what pushed him to ask for a trade. It was instead everything that happened as a result.
A Doomed Meeting with the Khan’s, Caldwell and Coughlin
As Ramsey left the stadium following the 13-12 loss, Chief Football Strategy Officer Tony Khan approached the corner and asked if he and his dad—Owner Shad Khan—could speak to Ramsey.
“I got a lot of respect for them, they always show me and my family love,” Ramsey says now of the Khans. So he readily agreed to speak to the father and son co-owners.
Once in the room, he found the Khan’s, Coughlin and then General Manager Dave Caldwell.
“It’s four of them in there and then it’s just me and they were like standing like in a semi-circle just all looking at me. So I’m hot now, like, first of all, you told me it was just you and pops and now I’m in here [with Coughlin and Caldwell as well].
“Shad started to speak first and was very respectful. You know ‘Jalen we got a lot of respect for you, we’ve got a lot of respect for your game’ this, that whoop-de-whoop… ‘Are you and Doug going to be good? We don’t want anything going on between a key player and our head coach.’ I’m like ‘We good. It is what it is and that’s just part of the game. We’re moving on.
“Tom Coughlin didn’t say nothing the whole time. He was just sitting there staring at me, like trying to give me one of those little ‘I’m going to intimidate you’ kind of looks, but I don’t care about none of that. So I’m just sitting there staring right at him too. Tony said something, too, and was real respectful, again. Basically repeated what his dad said and kind of kept it moving like ‘Man we really think y’all should talk before anybody talks to the media. Y’all two should talk just to make sure y’all good and maybe you need to apologize to him.’
“And then I told him, I said ‘Respectfully, I’m not about to apologize to him.’ I said, ‘That’s a part of the game. Emotions get high and we might get into it. It ain’t no beef, ain’t nothing going on between us. Me and coach good. We’ve always been good. I ain’t about to apologize to him for having high emotions during the game.’ He was like ‘OK, I respect it. Just think about it.’
“So then Dave Caldwell, who was the GM at the time, he took the total opposite — I guess they were in there playing good cop, bad cop. He took the total opposite approach,” Ramsey said. “He started cussing and started trying to cuss me out, like ‘You need to go [expletive] apologize.’
“I said ‘No, that ain’t happening.’ And then he said something else, but I forgot what he said. You know how when you’re in shock sometimes, you give like that little laugh, like ‘He’s crazy.’ So, I gave him a little grin and he’s like ‘Oh, is this funny to you?’ And I just started shaking my head, and then he was like, ‘Well, just get the [expletive] out!’ And he opened the door, and I just walked out like laughing a little bit, and he slammed the door behind me.”
Ramsey immediately called his agent and told him to alert the Jaguars to his trade request.
The Jaguars started Ramsey the following week in a win over the Tennessee Titans. Ahead of Week 4, he was placed in the inactive list, in order to be present for the birth of his child supposedly. He’d remain on the inactive list for two more weeks before finally being traded to the Los Angeles Rams on October 15.
When it came down to it, Jalen Ramsey’s time with the Jacksonville Jaguars was short but impactful, in more ways than one. His trade resulted in draft picks that became K’Lavon Chaisson (2020), Travis Etienne and Jordan Smith (2021). When it came time for the former first round pick to leave the Jacksonville Jaguars, his reasoning was simple.
“I hate losing and I want to win; like that's me I can’t be content with losing. I felt like a lot of people in the organization was content with losing really. I can't be content with losing one, I said, but two, man I don’t feel like they handle business the right way around here, and I don't, I honestly don't think they value me like I feel like I should be valued.”
