The Los Angeles Rams are transitioning into a new era of its franchise as key members they signed to lucrative deals are heading out the door.
The NFL’s salary cap finally forced the Rams to disband parts of its Super Bowl roster, starting with the release of Leonard Floyd. However, they didn’t stop there as they also executed a deal to send Jalen Ramsey to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a 2023 third-round pick and tight end Hunter Long. The move seemed to be a foregone conclusion considering all the noise and rumors the past couple of weeks, but it still doesn’t lessen the blow for fans.
Ramsey seemed to know his time in Los Angeles was coming to an end for a while given how open he was about the situation on social media, but nonetheless, he sent out a brief thank you and expressed his love for the fans once the trade news to Miami broke, via his Twitter account:
After Ramsey was introduced to the media in Miami for the first time, he again showed love to the Rams and his former teammates.
“Being around Hall of Fame players. Aaron Donald, Von Miller, Cooper Kupp, Matthew Stafford. The list can go on,” Ramsey said. “I don’t want to leave nobody out, but all those guys. Learning a lot of valuable things from them, learning how our team dynamic was, learning how everyone had their own passion, everybody had their love, but we were all doing it as one. Everyone was unified, we always had each other’s back. It was really like a family. It was good times, it was bad times, it was fights, it was love. It was all that.”
The Ramsey trade to Miami is one of the early blockbusters of the offseason and it’s a perfect landing spot for the All-Pro defensive back as the defensive system will be familiar. Vic Fangio himself will be running the schemes for the Dolphins, a system Ramsey is well-versed in after spending three years with it during his time with the Rams.
Losing Ramsey obviously hurts the Rams in the short term, and fans were not happy with the meager return they got for him. Age and guaranteed money were reportedly the primary concerns for potential suitors when it came to the Ramsey sweepstakes, so perhaps the deal Los Angeles took from Miami was indeed the best one on the table.
Without Ramsey to lead the secondary, L.A. is betting on the development of the young DBs it has under contract for next season. Players like Robert Rochell, Cobie Durant and Derion Kendrick are in line for bigger roles, though the Rams will also add talent to the unit via the 2023 NFL Draft.
A young, inexperienced defense will have its bumps and bruises, but it seems this is the path the Rams feel is the best one for them moving forward.
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