Ramsey Rams Reunion Remains a Possibility

The Miami Dolphins' trade discussions regarding Jalen Ramsey are continuing, and they still include one of his former teams.

That team would be the Los Angeles Rams, who traded Ramsey to the Dolphins in March of 2023.

L.A. head coach Sean McVay said during a radio interview Friday the Rams are still talking with the Dolphins and sounded like somebody very interested in a reunion.

“He is a total stud,” McVay told Adam Schein of SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio, “and you look at — obviously he has continued to play at a really high level. He and I have kept in great touch even since we ended up trading him to Miami. Special competitor, great person, great father.

“And so there are a lot of layers when you’re talking about a player of his caliber, all right, with regards to the contract, the compensation that they would be looking for in exchange for receiving a player of his magnitude. And so those conversations are ongoing as I’m sure they are with multiple teams. And we’ll see, but we’re never gonna shy away from opportunities to increase the competitiveness of our roster or add great players as long as it fits within the framework of everything that an acquisition like that would entail.”

The Rams make perfect sense as a trade partner for the Dolphins because they have a need in the secondary, reached the second round of the playoffs last season and have a quarterback (Matthew Stafford) who probably has only a couple of years left.

The stumbling block for the Rams, as it will be for any potential trade partner, will be the trade compensation and Ramsey's salary.

The two very well might be connected, with a team likely willing to give Miami more in exchange for Ramsey the more salary the Dolphins are willing to absorb.

Ramsey, to whom, the Dolphins already gave a $4 million roster bonus this offseason, is due $21 million in 2025 — all of it guaranteed. The Rams have a little more than $18 million of effective cap space, according to OverTheCap.com.

POTENTIAL RAMSEY TIMELINE

The Dolphins, meanwhile, currently have a little under $11.7 million of effective cap space (includes space needed for draft class) and their 2025 cap clearly would benefit for any Ramsey trade occurring after June 1.

Under that scenario, the Dolphins would have to count $6.7 million for Ramsey, as opposed to more than $25 million if they traded him before June 1 (though $18.4 million would go against the 2026 cap).

Dolphins GM Chris Grier said there were discussions with other teams throughout the weekend about a Ramsey, but obviously nothing came to fruition.

Grier said the Dolphins won't necessarily wait until after June 1 to consummate a deal even if that would make the cap hit less painful, emphasizing he doesn't know when the right opportunity will surface.

Head coach Mike McDaniel, meanwhile, was asked point blank about how he would describe his relationship with Ramsey, which has been reported to be problematic, and he sidestepped the question saying there was no purpose in talking about it and taking away attention from the draft picks.

RAMSEY'S DRAFT MESSAGE

Ramsey, meanwhile, has not followed up on the Instagram Reel of a rotten orange he posted on draft night that included a message that most definitely could have been interpreted as a personal statement.

"If you surround yourself with people who are okay with mediocre, you too will start to be okay with it. ... surround yourself with people who desire GREATNESS!"

When Grier confirmed reports that the team would explore a trade for Ramsey, he said the issue wasn't the result of Ramsey asking for a salary adjustment, and the Dolphins weren't in a position to ask him to take a pay cut considering his contract is guaranteed for 2025.

So the issue all along figured to involved some sort of personal conflict or perhaps a disagreement over how Ramsey should be used.

WHY TRADING RAMSEY ISN'T SIMPLE

Regardless of whether you want to believe that the Dolphins feel they'll be better off without Ramsey because of non-playing concerns or that Ramsey wants out, the Dolphins are going to try to get the most they can out of a trade partner, which will be looking to pay as little as possible.

Complicating the issue is that Ramsey is in a position because of the extension the Dolphins gave him last summer — one in a series of moves that don't look so good in retrospect — to have a say in his next team.

While Ramsey technically doesn't have a no-trade clause in his contract, no team would want to trade for a player with no desire to play for them. And the Dolphins can't threaten to simply cut Ramsey becuase he's got about $25 million guaranteed next season.

As good a player as Ramsey has been, any team looking into acquiring him recognizes his tremendous set of various skills, his physicality, versatility, football acumen, but also will realize he's on the wrong side of 30, he's expensive and he's high maintenance — he was labeled "disgruntled" by NFL.com after he was traded from Jacksonville to the Los Angeles Rams and now this.

Again, anytime a player of Ramsey's caliber is looking at a third trade in less than five years, something is amiss.

And it's why the Dolphins are going to get nowhere near what the Jaguars got for him from the Rams, which was two first-round picks, and might be lucky to get the equivalent of what they gave the Rams, which was a third-round pick along with a third-year tight end (Hunter Long) who had done little in his first two seasons after being a third-round pick.

COULD RAMSEY RETURN?

The possibility of Ramsey even being on the roster in 2025 was brought up, and Grier didn't dismiss it out of hand, though the reality is that once this kind of story comes out, it's almost past a point of no return.

"Trades come together at all different times," Grier said. "You've seen from before the draft, day of the draft, during the draft. I think A.J. Brown was during the draft, it happened (when he was traded from Tennessee to Philadelphia). So, you know, when it happens, it'll happen. And if it doesn't, we'll deal with it then.

"Again, this was long discussions, I would say throughout the offseason. So this wasn't anything we rushed to and just said today, let's do this. So we're prepared if he's here, we'll deal with it and if he's not, we'll adjust as well. So we feel good about where it is. It's never easy to replace a player like Jalen. He was a good player for us, he's a good player, he'll probably be a Hall of Famer here. But for the Miami Dolphins going forward, we feel like this is the best chance to help us win, not only just this year, but in the future as well."

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