Rams CB Jalen Ramsey on contract status: ‘I’m not worried about it.’
Heading into the final year of his rookie deal, Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey said back in June that he had no intentions of holding out of training camp due to his contract status.
Ramsey remained true to his word. Wearing a mask around his neck while talking to reporters in a zoom meeting on Tuesday, Ramsey got a bit prickly and briefly left the zoom meeting after being pressed about his contract status.
He later returned, providing a revealing, 2-minute answer about his contract situation, which you can read below.
The cliff notes version is Ramsey is not concerned when the contract gets done.
“I can’t do anything about it,” he said. “I’m not worried about it. I’m trying to do my job as a football player. I’m trying to be leader on the team. I’m not going to do every zoom session, or however we’re going to do them this year, talking about my contract.
“Look, if it comes, it comes. It’s going to be a surprise to me like it’s going to be a surprise to y’all. I called my agent up before August, and I said I don’t even want him to call me about it. I literally told him, I said I want you to call me one time, when my deal is done. I said when you feel like my deal is done, call me.”
Rams general manager Les Snead said the team remains in negotiations with Ramsey’s agent, David Mulugheta, and that two sides have a good relationship.
“With Jalen's agent, David Mulugheta, he’s a great guy and really good agent, up and coming and has a lot of premier clients in this league,” Snead said. “So, we have that healthy relationship. We’ve had dialogue with him, obviously since the middle of the 2019 season when we made the trade. That goes with the other players on our roster that have contracts that are coming to fruition or going to expire in the 2020 season or after it.”
While it appears both sides want to get a deal done, there’s still issues to resolve, including the Rams’ tight cap space, along with the uncertainty of what the salary cap will be in future years due to the NFL holding a season during the Covid-19 pandemic.
All of the top four picks in the 2016 draft have signed contract extensions, so Ramsey, selected No. 5 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars that year, should be next in line.
Ramsey is set to make $13.7 million in 2020 on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal that carried over after last year’s midseason trade the Rams made with Jacksonville to secure his services.
The Rams also have a recent history of inking lucrative deals to star players right before the season start, including Aaron Donald, Jared Goff and Tyler Higbee, so it stands to reason Ramsey will be getting paid sooner rather than later.
For now, Ramsey is content to let the process play out.
“I’m not worried about it,” he said. “I’m worried about football. I’m worried about other things in my life. Like, my blessing will come when they come. I’ve got all my trust in God. So when I give y’all an answer, that’s the answer.
“I don’t appreciate y’all trying to push me to a different answer because that’s not what y’all wanted to hear. That’s my real, genuine answer. I’m not worried about it. That’s genuine. I’m not lying to y’all. I’m really not worried about it. The Rams knew that before they traded for me. They knew what the situation was. We all have been on the same page from the jump.”
