Jalen Ramsey touched on the trade that sent him away from the Miami Dolphins during an interview on The Pivot podcast, throwing in a couple of interesting nuggets though not the reason he wanted out of Miami.
During the 45-minute interview, Ramsey expressed his admiration for his new head coach, Mike Tomlin, and made some comments that could have been interpreted as minor shots at his former team.
Discussing the trade, Ramsey said: "It was in the works for a little minute. It was in the works, but things had to get put together the right way. Things had to come together from my standpoint, to the Dolphins to the Steelers, I think all of us had to come to, I guess, you could say an agreement. We all had to come to a consensus on what it would be. I do appreciate the Dolphins and them working with me and David (agent David Mulugheta), not just, 'Hey, this team called and, you know, we gonna send you here' and this and that. Like, it wasn't any of that.
"It was very open communication. Like, y'all been good to us. I've been good to y'all. Like, let's do it the right way. Let's go to a team that's going to be able to compete. Let's go to a team where there's a lot of respect for the head coach in there, and the staff, a place where I can continue developing playing at a high level, maybe be versatile. And then, you know, I had to let David do his thing too. You know, the money, the money was involved. So he did his thing with that. And then, you know, obviously the Steelers, they really wanted me here. And at the end of the day, I wanted to be here as well, and so it got to a certain point where I was like, everything is good on my end. Let's get the business handled. Y'all do that part, and y'all let me know when it's a go. So that kind of took a little minute to get done, but once that got done, it was like, let's go."
While the reasons for Ramsey wanting to leave remain unclear, it was suggested that his relationship with Mike McDaniel might have played a role, perhaps a big one.
And the comment about a "team where there's a lot of respect for the head coach" certainly comes across as gratuitous at best and a shot at worst.
And, of course, with Ramsey money always is involved, and no Dolphins fans could be blamed for being annoyed that he wanted more again after Miami redid his contract both after trading for him in the 2023 offseason and then before the 2024 regular season, which led to his quick recovery from a hamstring injury that allowed to play in the season opener.
As had been reported, veteran Jamaal Williams indeed was one of the running backs the Dolphins worked out Monday before they signed Mike Boone and Aaron Shampklin.
The fourth and final running back who got a tryout was six-year NFL veteran and former Denver Broncos third-round pick Royce Freeman. He was out of the NFL in 2024 after playing the Los Angeles Rams the previous season.
The Dolphins signed Boone and Shampklin after putting running back Alexander Mattison on injured reserve and waiving wide receiver Monaray Baldwin, one of the team's four undrafted rookie free agents at the position.
-- Safety Mark Perry, who had a solid showing in Dolphins training camp as a rookie free agent last summer, signed with the Chicago Bears.
-- Running back Deneric Prince, who spent last season on the Dolphins practice, was waived-injured by the New England Patriots just days after signing with the team.
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