There’s one small thing we never went over yet in this preview of the Los Angeles Rams, and that’s getting a chance for Jimmy Garoppolo to go up against Jalen Ramsey. Yeah, just one of the best cornerbacks in the league against Jimmy G, right?
Well, it’s a bit more interesting and with a bit more history. See, back in 2017, Ramsey played for the Jacksonville Jaguars and, well, this happened.
It was one of the games that showed why Garoppolo was the man and why the 49ers paid him all that money last year. But this isn’t about the game; it’s about Jalen Ramsey’s comments in the 2018 offseason. When discussing Garoppolo’s place on the NFL’s top-100 players, he was not willing to drop praise without the back of his hand:
“What he play, five games? He has good potential. I think he’ll be a good player but, my experience playing him, it was a lot of scheme stuff. It wasn’t like he was just dicing us up.”
Here’s the thing: that’s true. However, this is one of those times where he shouldn’t have been the one to say it. Hearing that, I went and wrote a quick rebuttal, to remind him—and everyone, scheme or no scheme, the Jaguars got their butts kicked. Social media gold got struck hours later when Ramsey thumbed this tweet out against me:
@ me next time. Jimmy is good, I said that but based off our game, only 1 Wr had more than 25 yards on us & most of that came off 1 catch for 24 yards... he used his FB & TE for big gains off play action & their running game was also good that game. That’s scheme! Learn sum ✌ https://t.co/xHkkuwprze
— Jalen Ramsey (@jalenramsey) June 26, 2018
To which, I responded in kind:
So stop the running game and cover his tight ends better. You want him to throw to covered receivers? Who is he? Blake Bortles? https://t.co/ShIQWvZnUC
— Patrick Holloway (@patoholloway) June 26, 2018
The consensus was everyone hoped the 49ers would have a shot at the Jaguars in the Super Bowl. Instead, the Jaguars traded Ramsey to the Los Angeles Rams, where Garoppolo can now face him twice a year. I’m not sure anymore what dicing up is; I think this is what Ramsey thinks of when getting diced.
The above is a simple highlight of my time at Niners Nation as I finally got to interact with athletes in the greatest sport in the world. All I want now is to see Jimmy G vs. Jalen Ramsey II. This time, I hope we can end this debate on scheme vs. dicing forever.
Dice ‘em up Garoppolo. Dice ‘em up.