As it turned out, Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White’s status as the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback based on annual average salary lasted five days. White’s four-year, $69 million contract extension that could hit $70 million with Pro Bowl incentives was overwhelmed by the five-year, $105 million contract extension given to Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey’s $21 million AAV re-sets the cornerback market quite definitively, the $71.2 million guaranteed blasts past Miami’s Byron Jones’ $54.374 million for the most guaranteed money ever given to a cornerback, and it’s not like the Rams had a choice.
Last October, after shopping Marcus Peters to the Ravens for linebacker Kenny Young, a second-round pick, and a fourth-round pick, the Rams turned around and traded their first-round picks over the next two years, and a fourth-round pick, to the Jaguars for Ramsey’s services. They did so knowing that Ramsey was only under contract through the 2020 season, and given the draft capital they hurled out the window, there was no way head coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead were going to let Ramsey walk out the door.
It’s not surprising that Ramsey re-set the market at his position; other players who have recently been acquired in exchange for multiple first-round picks have had their new teams over the same barrel: Giving up that much and admitting that the move was anything but a colossal success could be an easy career-killer.
Last August, the Texans traded two first-round picks, plus a second-round pick, to the Dolphins for left tackle Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills. Tunsil was the major part of the equation, and this trade was one of several that people have roasted Texans head coach and de facto general manager Bill O’Brien for making. O’Brien may have a skewed concept of player value overall, but Tunsil did do a lot to improve Houston’s blindside blocking. Tunsil was due to be a free agent following the 2020 season, but after giving up so much for him in the first place, the Texans doubled down in the second place with a three-year, $66 million extension with $40 million fully guaranteed that made Tunsil the league’s highest-paid tackle on a per-year basis. Your smarter people around the league would say that O’Brien had no choice but to give Tunsil whatever he wanted.
When the Bears traded their 2019 and 2020 first-round picks to the Raiders for edge-rusher Khalil Mack in 2018, they also started work on a six-year, $141 million contract extension with $90 million in total guarantees over the life of the deal. This made Mack the NFL’s highest paid player at his position, an honor he holds to this day.
(Note to the Seahawks, who gave their first-round picks in 2021 and 2022 to the Jets for safety Jamal Adams, whose rookie contract runs out in 2021: You’re next).
So, what are the Rams getting for all that cash? Of course, by doing this deal, they believe that in Ramsey, they have the NFL’s finest player at his position. Then again, this is the same team that gave Jared Goff a four-year, $134 million contract extension last September, so you’ll forgive me if I’m not completely aligned with their concept of player value.
And with no personal disrespect intended to Mr. Ramsey, we’re not aligned at all in this case, either. When I recently put together my list of the NFL’s top 11 outside cornerbacks for 2020, Ramsey didn’t even make honorable mention, and that’s not by omission. Ramsey did rank ninth on my 2019 list, so there’s that. Peters, who the Rams gave away for a relative pittance, did make my 2020 list, and I would argue that if you just have to have a boom-and-bust cornerback with both formidable physical ability and ravenous inconsistency in your secondary, Peters is the guy you want on that wall.
In addition, Ramsey didn’t make my list of the league’s 11 best cornerbacks in zone coverage, nor did he make my list of the 11 best cornerbacks in man coverage (though Peters, ahem, did).
Overall, in his nine games with the Rams last season, Ramsey allowed 28 receptions on 40 targets for 336 yards, 94 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 85.0. Not bad at all, but not earth-shatteringly great, and his Rams tape syncs up nicely with his Jaguars tape to show a player just as prone to make an amazing play as he is to leave himself out in space. In addition, Ramsey is inherently flawed when presented with certain kinds of receiver problems to solve.
Let’s go to the tape, starting with his 2019 Jaguars performance, and seguing into the Rams stuff.