McVay isn’t ruling out a trade but it sounds like the odds are slimming by the day
We’re now approaching late June and Jalen Ramsey still has not been traded. The Miami Dolphins have been trying to find a trade partner for months and even now that a deal is more palatable from a financial perspective, Ramsey remains on the Dolphins’ roster.
The Los Angeles Rams have been interested in potentially acquiring the All-Pro cornerback but as time passes, they seem less and less likely to bring him in – especially with the way Sean McVay has been talking.
He was asked about Ramsey’s situation again on Tuesday and though he said there are “no updates,” he did acknowledge there are “a lot of layers and a lot of parameters that would need to take place” in order for the Rams to make a trade for him.
McVay also said there are “obstacles” standing in the Rams’ way of a deal, laying out exactly what those hurdles are.
“What is his salary? And are we able to take that on just based on our current situation when you onboard a player that’s earned the right to be paid where he’s at?” McVay explained. “Those are things that you’re usually planning months in advance and obviously, it was unforeseen that he would become available. And if you do execute a trade, what are they looking for in return? Is there a conversation to be had in terms of a portion of that contract that they pay? Are they interested in players or draft capital? So there’s a lot of layers to that.”
Ramsey didn’t become available until the middle of April when Dolphins GM Chris Grier confirmed the team’s intent to part ways with the veteran cornerback. That timing may have thrown the Rams off, though it’s not as if they made meaningful additions at cornerback before learning that Ramsey was on the block.
It sounds like the Rams didn’t expect Ramsey to become available, so they proceeded with the plans they already had in place before the Dolphins started to shop him.
“Usually, those are scenarios and situations that you have to have plans in place prior to executing some of the decisions that have occurred,” McVay added. “Definitely don’t want to rule anything out because we’re always open-minded to onboarding and acquiring quality players and people like him if we’re able to do that, but there would be some obstacles that are real that are in the place of maybe preventing that from occurring.”
Peter Schrager of ESPN said at the end of May that he hasn’t gotten the sense that the Rams are “banging down the doors for the Miami Dolphins to trade them Jalen Ramsey.” McVay’s comments appear to echo that sentiment, as does the lack of movement and news on the trade front.
There’s no real deadline for the Dolphins to move Ramsey, but the expectation is that he’ll be on a new team before the season starts, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. We’ll just have to wait and see if that team is the Rams.