JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jalen Ramsey wants to be traded but also wants to play on Thursday night if he’s still a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
But what he says he doesn’t want is to be a distraction.
That was Ramsey’s main point in a nearly 16-minute news conference on Tuesday. He dodged answering questions about why he wants to be traded, what precipitated his request, and what, if anything, could keep him around as a member of the Jaguars, but said he had hoped nobody outside of the Jaguars’ management and his close associates would learn of his ask to be traded from the team that drafted him fifth overall in 2016.
“Let’s be clear about something in regards to that: I didn’t leak that information,” Ramsey said. “Me and my agent [David Mulugheta], we are not the ones who leaked that information. And I was very strict about that because I did not want it to get out. I didn’t want to be a distraction. I didn’t want everybody asking my teammates all type of questions throughout the week, so let me real clear about that.
“Me and my team, we was not the one that leaked that information because I thought about my teammates. I thought about stuff like that, so y’all need to ask the other side or whoever.”
The Jaguars (0-2) play host to Tennessee (1-1) Thursday night at TIAA Bank Field. Because the players had Monday off, normal game-week preparations are shoehorned into two days. Ramsey said the last thing his teammates needed in the short week was to be peppered with questions about his unhappiness with his role in the defensive scheme, his relationship with head coach Doug Marrone and defensive coordinator Todd Wash, the organization’s decision not to offer him a contract extension this year, and his sideline shouting match last Sunday with Marrone.
That hope was trashed the moment the news that Ramsey wanted out of Jacksonville leaked on Monday evening. Ramsey did, however, have a few other things to say: He wants to play against the Titans on Thursday “if I’m still here,” and if he were not active for the game, he would “support the hell out of my teammates. As long as I’m a part of this team, that’s all you’re going to get from me.”
He’s in a good place mentally and has nothing “negative to say about nobody around here in this building. I have really good relationships with tons of people around this building.”
He wants everyone to know that he has no hard feelings toward the city and the fans: “I love Duval. The city embraced me, the fans embraced me since I’ve been here. … I love the city. I love the fans, man. Ever since I got here in Jacksonville, since I was drafted here, I’ve done nothing but give the city my all. I think everybody knows that.”
Ramsey would not talk about his contract situation, either. He said in the spring that the team told him they would not be giving him an extension this year (the Jaguars picked up his fifth-year option for 2020) and said a day later on social media that he wasn’t going to give the Jaguars a discount and they would have to pay him so much they’d need to put him on layaway.
“I think everybody for the most part knows what’s up, so I don’t really too much want to speak on it and give no detail,” Ramsey said. “I’m [going to] let God do his work. I’m going to let my agent do his work. Everybody is going to work it out, and I’m going to focus on what I can focus on and right now that’s being a good teammate still while I’m here, get ready for the game, supporting my guys and just being Jalen, man, at the end of the day.”