Miami Dolphins Posts Interesting Message Amid Trade Speculation
Jalen Ramsey has weighed in on his current situation with the Miami Dolphins.
At least it appears so.
Ramsey’s latest Instagram Reel of a rotten orange includes a message that most definitely could be interpreted as a personal statement.
“If you surround yourself with people who are okay with mediocre, you too will start to be okay with it. … surround yourself with people who desire GREATNESS!”
This certainly would give validity that some kind of personality clash is at the root of the situation that led Dolphins GM Chris Grier to reveal last week that the team and Ramsey have agreed to explore trade possibilities.
Grier said last week the issue wasn’t the result of Ramsey asking for a salary adjustment, and the Dolphins weren’t in a position to ask him to take a pay cut considering his contract is guaranteed for 2025.
So the issue all along figured to involved some sort of personal conflict or perhaps a disagreement over how Ramsey should be used.
If Ramsey indeed is leaving because of a personality conflict, we should bring up a report from Sportskeeda insider Tony Pauline, who wrote Thursday: “Multiple sources tell me the main reason is that Mike McDaniel has rubbed a lot of the veterans the wrong way after early success with the team, they’d rather play elsewhere than stay with Miami at this point.”
Regardless, Ramsey still appears to be headed out of Miami, though as we indicated before finding a trade partner won’t be easy.
Regardless of whether you want to believe that the Dolphins feel they’ll be better off without Ramsey because of non-playing concerns or that Ramsey wants out, the Dolphins are going to try to get the most they can out of a trade partner, which will be looking to pay as little as possible.
Complicating the issue is that Ramsey is in a position because of the extension the Dolphins gave him last summer — one in a series of moves that don’t look so good in retrospect — to have a say in his next team.
While Ramsey technically doesn’t have a no-trade clause in his contract, no team would want to trade for a player with no desire to play for them. And the Dolphins can’t threaten to simply cut Ramsey becuase he’s got about $25 million guaranteed next season.
As good a player as Ramsey has been, any team looking into acquiring him recognizes his tremendous set of various skills, his physicality, versatility, football acumen, but also will realize he’s on the wrong side of 30, he’s expensive and he’s high maintenance — he was labeled “disgruntled” by NFL.com after he was traded from Jacksonville to the Los Angeles Rams and now this.
Again, anytime a player of Ramsey’s caliber is looking at a third trade in less than five years, something is amiss.
And it’s why the Dolphins are going to get nowhere near what the Jaguars got for him from the Rams, which was two first-round picks, and might be lucky to get the equivalent of what they gave the Rams, which was a third-round pick along with a third-year tight end (Hunter Long) who had done little in his first two seasons after being a third-round pick.
While Grier declined to provide the exact reason Ramsey would like to move to another team, he did say that the issue was not contract-related and the cornerback did not specifically ask for a trade — though agreeing to explore trade options is not that far removed from being the same thing.
Grier also made clear this situation has been brewing for a bit.
“After a couple weeks of discussions between ourselves internally and Jalen and his representation, we decided that it was probably in the best interests for all parties to move forward,” Grier said. “I will say these decisions aren’t done quickly and they’re not taken lightly because we spent a lot of time this offseason working through this, talking through things. At the end of the day, Jalen did not ask for a trade. So we went through the process and just felt that after numerous conversations and then talking last week with Jalen and his agent, that it was best to move forward and it was in the best interests of the Miami Dolphins and for Jalen Ramsey.”
This is where one has to wonder if it’s not about the contract, why would Ramsey be willing to switch teams just two years after being acquired from the Los Angeles Rams and returning to the state where he played his college football (Florida State)? And why would it be in the best interests for the Dolphins to trade their most talented defensive player?
“Really those discussions I’ll keep internally,” Grier said. “I’m not going to get out here and talk about it. But we had a lot of discussions on it and from both sides and at the end of the day, we felt this is what was best for the Dolphins and for Jalen.”
Grier said he already had had discussions with other teams about a Ramsey trade and didn’t know whether a deal would be consummated before, during or after the draft.
The possibility of Ramsey even being on the roster in 2025 was brought up, and Grier didn’t dismiss it out of hand, though the reality is that once this kind of story comes out, it’s almost past a point of no return.
“Trades come together at all different times,” Grier said. “You’ve seen from before the draft, day of the draft, during the draft. I think A.J. Brown was during the draft, it happened (when he was traded from Tennessee to Philadelphia). So, you know, when it happens, it’ll happen. And if it doesn’t, we’ll deal with it then.
“Again, this was long discussions, I would say throughout the offseason. So this wasn’t anything we rushed to and just said today, let’s do this. So we’re prepared if he’s here, we’ll deal with it and if he’s not, we’ll adjust as well. So we feel good about where it is. It’s never easy to replace a player like Jalen. He was a good player for us, he’s a good player, he’ll probably be a Hall of Famer here. But for the Miami Dolphins going forward, we feel like this is the best chance to help us win, not only just this year, but in the future as well.”
Ramsey has played the past two seasons for Miami after being acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Rams in 2023 in exchange for tight end Hunter Long and a third-round pick.
Ramsey has four years left on his contract, but his guarantees run out after 2025.
His salary for 2025 is $24.2 million, all guaranteed, though it’s mostly bonuses with his base salary only $1.3 million, per Over The Cap.
Ramsey’s cap number currently stands at $16.7 million for the Dolphins in 2025, but it would go to $25.2 million if he’s traded before June 1 because his signing bonus no longer would be spread out over the next three years. That scenario would allow the Dolphins to get 2025 draft pick compensation.
The cap number would go down to $6.7 million (with the remaining $17.5 million on the books in 2026) if the trade went down after June 1, though it clearly couldn’t involve 2025 pick compensation.
