Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey, never afraid to speak his mind, has a strong take on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
The former New England Patriots backup had a very nice start to his career as a starter in 2017. He went undefeated in his five starts and even managed to look darn good against Ramsey’s Jags in Week 16, throwing for 242 yards and two touchdowns in a huge 49ers win.
As a result, he ended up being the No. 90-ranked player on the NFL Top 100 list ahead of the 2018 season. Ramsey doesn’t think he deserved that honor.
“Not yet, not yet,” Ramsey told Kurt Warner and Michael Irvin during a recent appearance on the NFL Network (h/t Herbie Trope of NFL.com).
“What he play — five games? “He has good potential. I think he’ll be a good player, but off my experience in playing him, it was a lot of scheme stuff. It wasn’t like he was just dicing us up. It was a lot of scheme stuff.”
These comments might not set well with 49ers fans, who fondly remember Garoppolo picking apart the vaunted Jags defense in Week 16. However, Ramsey has a rebuttal that actually does make some sense.
“Nobody had a scheme on him [in 2017],” Ramsey said. “There was not a lot of film out on him.”
It’s going to be fascinating to see how Garoppolo and the 49ers perform in 2018. There is tape on him now, and it’s no secret that Garoppolo has been struggling so far during the offseason.
We’ll find out soon enough if the 49ers will end up regretting their decision to make Garoppolo one of the NFL’s richest men, or if they end up with smiles on their faces while he continues to shine.