The Rams’ hunt for a defensive back is back on after the Rams didn’t select one in the 2025 NFL Draft. While all signs pointed to a reunion with Jalen Ramsey, Sean McVay downplayed reports that the Rams remained interested during the draft.
NFL Insider Ian Rapoport said this from Green Bay.
“And I would say this, there are several interested teams.” Said Rapoport. “Dolphins have had some phone calls, his old team, the Los Angeles Rams, from my understanding are at least one of the teams interested. That reunion will be pretty fascinating. One of Sean McVay’s favorite players he’s had.”
McVay made his own comments after the draft during a press conference.
“I think we’re still getting through that process. A part of getting through the draft is also when it actually officially ends and then going through the undrafted free agent process. Like we talked about, there still are a lot of layers, contract, compensation and different things like that. There is a tremendous amount of appreciation that we have for Jalen, the time that we spent. He and I have really stayed in touch. I know it’s the same thing with [Assistant Head Coach/PassGame Coordinator] Aubrey [Pleasant] and some of our other coaches. There’s a lot of familiarity, but we’re probably in the same position when we talked about it the other day just because there are some things that we still need to take care of to be able to truly get through the draft from the totality of it all.”
Well, there has been an update provided on Thursday by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.
“I think the Los Angeles Rams would love to have him.” Wrote Breer. “The money is the issue for the Rams and any other potential suitor, and the Miami Dolphins who are trying to move him as well. He’s due $25.1 million this year, and all but $865,000 of it is fully guaranteed.”
“At this point of the offseason, very few teams have the cash in the budget or room on the cap to take that salary on. In a special circumstance, you might make it work. But as good as Ramsey still is, I don’t know that there are many teams that would look at acquiring him in that way.”
“So, at that point, you’d be looking for the Dolphins to take on a chunk of the money to essentially “buy” a draft pick as part of the deal to offload Ramsey and his guarantees.”
Here’s the situation. No one wants Jalen Ramsey right now because of his massive contract. Most of the NFL can not afford him, and the teams that can may not want an aging defensive back set to be under contract until 2028.
The Rams would require to Dolphins to eat some of Ramsey’s 2025 guarantees if not a lot of it and Ramsey may have to void some of the years left on his deal to make it work.
However, with a 2026 first round pick from Atlanta, the Rams may be willing to trade a higher pick, even a day two pick for Ramsey, depending on how much money Miami eats.
If they do get Ramsey, perhaps he even plays deep safety for the Rams 00 but something to note is that Darius Williams only has a dead cap hit of 1.1 million in 2025 and 2026 if moved after June 1st. A move would give the Rams $8 million back in cap space.
