The Los Angeles Rams did their best to make a deep playoff run in 2019. When the year did not get off to a good start, the team made moves to bring in new pieces in hopes of switching things up.
The big acquisition for the Rams last season was former Jacksonville Jaguars All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey had made it known he no longer wanted to be in Jacksonville and requested a trade. The Rams were already full of defensive stars but somehow managed to make room for one more.
Now in the offseason, Ramsey took time to look back on how the trade went down. According to L.A. Times Sports, Ramsey was right in the middle of Taco Tuesday when he found out and was very excited:
“I was at the time sitting in Jacksonvile. My chef had probably just left the house and I had always had tacos on Tuesday, of course I’m a huge LeBron [James] fan, and he made taco Tuesday famous I guess you could say, especially out in LA. I was having a good taco Tuesday. I think I was like one or two bites in, maybe, and I got a call. It was a call I had been waiting on for awhile, and found out I was traded and then found out it was to the LA Rams.”
Ramsey ended up having a solid year in Los Angeles, earning himself a third straight nomination to the Pro Bowl. He finished the season with one interception, a forced fumble and 13 solo tackles.
Ramsey was not convinced that he would even be able to make it to Los Angeles due to their defensive depth. In particular, he believed that because both Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib were on the Rams, there would be no room for him:
“I had a couple places in mind, but at the time when I requested a trade, I didn’t think LA was even a possibility. I even remember talking to my agent and kind of telling him I would love to go here or here, just a few places, and I remember specifically telling him ‘You could reach out to LA, but I know they got ‘Lib [Talib] and MP [Peters] so it’s probably not going to happen.’ The way things turned out, it happened perfectly.”
With Ramsey finally in L.A., it will be fun to see what a full season holds for him. The Rams will be a very different team and a new defensive coordinator, but the talent will certainly be there to get back in postseason contention.
