The hot new trend among star NFL players is an NBA-style effort to get themselves out of bad situations and into better ones. It started with a trickle. Le'Veon Bell sat out the whole 2018 season. Antonio Brown did all he could to force a trade out of Pittsburgh. Heck, for a minute there you could convince yourself it was just a Pittsburgh Steelers thing.
But not anymore. Not now that Dee Ford, Frank Clark and Jadeveon Clowney all got traded from teams that gave them the franchise tag. Not now that Minkah Fitzpatrick -- the 11th overall pick in last year's draft -- requested and received a trade off the sinking Miami Dolphins' ship. Now, if you're an NFL player under contract who doesn't like his coach or his salary or the direction of his team, there are multiple blueprints available to help you figure out a way to make it better.
Enter Jacksonville Jaguars star Jalen Ramsey, perhaps the finest cornerback in the league. Five weeks shy of his 25th birthday, Ramsey is scheduled to earn about $17 million over the next two years and, it appears, is absolutely fed up with coach Doug Marrone.
Ramsey has asked the Jaguars to trade him and even appeared at a news conference Tuesday to address -- or at least dance around -- the issues at play. He did not deny requesting a trade, even as he promised he'd play hard and try to beat the Tennessee Titans on Thursday ("if I'm still here"). He seemed confident in where he stands. He carried the air of a man convinced it would all work out the way he wants.
For a player as good as Ramsey is, it's easy to feel that way. And in the NFL circa September 2019, there's even less reason to doubt it. Let's look at this Ramsey situation from a few different angles to see if we can educate you on what's happening and how it's all likely to shake out:
Jump to:
Five trade fits that make sense
What the Jags want in a deal
Why Ramsey's contract is tricky
What does Ramsey want?
He appears to want out, first and foremost. But if you take him at his word, he wants to win. He repeated that several times during Tuesday's news conference, and it's easy to see why. The Jaguars are 20-33 since Ramsey entered the league, and that even counts a 2-1 record in the 2017 postseason. Only the San Francisco 49ers, New York Jets and Cleveland Browns have lost more NFL games than Ramsey's Jaguars have since he was drafted. The man has done his share of losing.
What's that got to do with Ramsey getting into an ugly spat with Marrone on Sunday afternoon? Well, Ramsey isn't the first player to have an issue with Marrone and/or the Tom Coughlin-led front office the past couple of years, and Marrone's record doesn't offer players a ton of hope that he's the guy to turn it all around and start winning all of a sudden. Maybe he is, maybe he's not, but it's fair to say the results so far haven't helped his case. Ramsey is not exactly the most placid personality himself, so it all adds up to a cranky player who doesn't like the way things are going and wants to try it somewhere else.
An important note here: Multiple sources tell me that Ramsey's trade demand is not about money or wanting a new contract extension. The Jaguars picked up his $13.7 million option for 2020 but haven't had serious extension talks with him, and he has made his peace with that. Which means Ramsey believes (a) in his ability to stay healthy and productive and (b) in continued growth at the top of the cornerback market over the next couple of offseasons. More on this in a minute.
What do the Jaguars want?
Officials with teams that have talked to the Jaguars about Ramsey over the past few days say the Jags are looking for a first-round pick and then something else significant -- another first-round pick, in some cases, or a good starting player in others.
Again, Ramsey is as good as anyone in the league at the very important position he plays. He's quite young. He's a building-block player for any team that acquires him, and the Jaguars are asking for a price commensurate with that. There are teams that have spoken to Jacksonville that believe the Jaguars will lower their demands and they will be able to take another shot at getting him. But at this point, Jacksonville is asking for a major haul, as it should be.
How much would an acquiring team have to pay him?
That team would inherit Ramsey's current contract, which is his rookie deal. He's scheduled to earn about $3.6 million in this, his fourth season, and the team would hold a $13.7 million fifth-year option on him for 2020. That option is guaranteed against injury and becomes fully guaranteed on the first day of the 2020 league year.
Ramsey surely will want to be the league's highest-paid cornerback on his next deal.
That distinction currently belongs either to Miami's Xavien Howard, whose deal pays him an average of $15.05 million a year, or to Washington's Josh Norman, whose deal pays him $15 million a year but included $36.5 million in guarantees at the time of signing, compared to Howard's $27.2 million. Depends on which way you look at it, but Ramsey will surely want to top both, as well as any new record-setting cornerback deals that get signed between now and the time he gets a new deal.
Adam Schefter reports that Jalen Ramsey's agent requested a trade after the sideline confrontation, while Steve Young analyzes the implications of this around the league.
So figure on at least something around $16 million a year with potentially $40 million guaranteed. And it's going to be tough to get him to agree to any kind of bargain deal ahead of time, since he has $13.7 million coming in 2020 and would make even more than that (depending on the new CBA rules) on a potential 2021 franchise tag.
Bottom line: At this point, to acquire Ramsey, a team needs to part with two high-value assets and be ready to give him a record-setting cornerback contract. That's a lot to ask, but it's not often a player like this becomes available at this age. It's entirely possible one or more teams will line up for the privilege. Which brings us to ...
Five potential trade fits that make the most sense
Kansas City Chiefs
Projected first-round pick in 2020: No. 30
The Chiefs have a video-game offense run by the most enthralling young quarterback in recent memory. They were one third-down stop away from the Super Bowl eight months ago, and their defense remains their Achilles' heel. Cornerback is absolutely a spot where they've been looking to upgrade, and they could easily see Ramsey as a missing-piece type who could put them over the top and finally deliver Andy Reid his Super Bowl title.
Kansas City would have to clear some cap space in 2020 and beyond, but an extension could help do that, and this is a player for whom teams would gladly clear cap space. The Chiefs also have enough talent at other spots on their roster that they could add a player (wide receiver or running back?) to the deal if their first-round pick wasn't enough.
Baltimore Ravens
Projected first-round pick in 2020: No. 29
Starting cornerback Jimmy Smith is out for a while with a knee injury, and with the way the Ravens (and the Steelers) have started the season, Baltimore believes itself capable of repeating as division champion and building a long-term winner around second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson. Ramsey and Earl Thomas in the same secondary? Whoo-wee.
The Ravens even have enough young depth on defense that they could spice up an offer with a player who could help Jacksonville right away.
One holdup here: Baltimore doesn't have much of a history of trading away picks for players. Ramsey is good enough to be an exception, but it's rare for teams to veer from long-held tendencies or policies like that.
Seattle Seahawks
Projected first-round pick in 2020: No. 19
Off to a 2-0 start amid widespread external belief that they're rebuilding, the Seahawks don't believe in rebuilding and see themselves as a contender every year Russell Wilson puts on their uniform. Their defense needs help on the back end, and general manager John Schneider has shown a wizard-like ability to replenish draft picks if he uses them to acquire players in trades.
The team also has two 2020 second-round picks, in case that helps get a deal across the finish line.
Philadelphia Eagles
Projected first-round pick in 2020: No. 22
Like the Chiefs, the Eagles have a stacked-looking roster with a potential soft spot in the secondary. At this point, indications are that the Eagles are among the teams that would wait for the price to drop before wading into this seriously. But if it does, they also have enough roster depth in other spots to package a potential starter with their first-round pick.
San Francisco 49ers
Projected first-round pick in 2020: No. 27
Richard Sherman, 31, has played fine for them but won't be there forever. The Niners are off to a 2-0 start and kind of have to win this season, as coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch enter their third season together and Jimmy Garoppolo enters the second year of his massive contract without having done much yet.
They have nothing but cap space and some defensive front-seven types they could send back to help make it wash. Ramsey would be a win-now and a build-for-the-future piece for them.