In an off-season interview with GQ Magazine, Jacksonville Jaguars’ star cornerback Jalen Ramsey made national headlines with his less-than-stellar reviews of quarterbacks like Matt Ryan (“overrated”), Ben Roethlisberger (“decent at best”), and Tom Brady (“he doesn’t suck”).
Included in the story, Ramsey said Josh Allen, the Buffalo Bills’ prized rookie quarterback selected with the No. 7 overall pick, was “trash.”
“I think Allen is trash,” Ramsey said in the story. “I don’t care what nobody say. He’s trash. And it’s gonna show, too. That’s a stupid draft pick to me. We play them this year, and I’m excited as hell. I hope he’s their starting quarterback. He played at Wyoming. Every time they played a big school... he threw five interceptions, and they lost by a couple touchdowns or something like that. He never beat a big school. If you look at his games against big schools, it was always hella interceptions, hella turnovers. It’s like: ‘Yo, if you’re this good, why couldn’t you do better?’ He fits that mold, he’s a big, tall quarterback. Big arm, supposedly. I don’t see it, personally.”
The Bills (3-7) and Jaguars (3-7) square off Sunday at New Era Field, and for his part, Ramsey doubled down on the comments earlier this week.
“Everybody who knows me knows why I was so hard on him,” Ramsey said. “If you don’t know me, that’s on you. If y’all look deep into it, y’all can figure out why I was so harsh.”
Allen, who has shown glimpses of his potential this year but has also missed Buffalo’s last four games with a right elbow sprain, responded to Ramsay’s comments in the preseason by stating that the Pro Bowl cornerback’s opinions didn’t bother him.
When pressed further for comment this week, Allen steered clear of the controversy while also giving props to Ramsey as one of the best cornerbacks in the league.
“Honestly, I don’t even remember what he said, but I could care less,” said Allen. “It’s more what my teammates feel about me and how I’m progressing right now and just trying to continue to learn the game of football, enjoy this, and live it with my teammates.”
Sunday will be the first time Allen has been on the field in six weeks, and it will also be his first chance to directly attack Ramsey and the Jaguars, who made it to the AFC Championship game in 2017, but have lost six straight following a 3-1 start in 2018.