The Pittsburgh Steelers are entering the 2025 season with a new-look roster in place, and one of the players the team is most excited to have brought to town is veteran cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The Steelers acquired Ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith in a blockbuster trade with the Miami Dolphins that sent Minkah Fitzpatrick the other way.
Since getting selected with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, Ramsey has been one of the best cornerbacks in the league, as he’s a seven-time Pro Bowler who has also earned three All-Pro First Team selections. Most importantly, though, he helped the Los Angeles Rams take down the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.
In his two seasons with the Dolphins, Ramsey was solid, but he failed to reach the heights he had been hitting since early in his career. The 2024 season was the first year that Ramsey was not selected to the Pro Bowl since his rookie campaign with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2016.
Still, Ramsey is one of the better cornerbacks in the game, which is why Pittsburgh was so eager to acquire him. However, ESPN does not view him as one of the top 100 players in the league heading into the 2025 season, and he was immediately labeled one of the biggest snubs from the list.
“Ramsey surprisingly slipped out of our top 10 cornerbacks list in July, but Pittsburgh believes he’s got plenty left in the tank at age 30,” Jeremy Fowler of ESPN wrote. “Once the gold standard at corner, Ramsey still plays with fluidity and speed that’s rare for a 6-foot-1 corner.”
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“Ramsey’s versatility will bolster Pittsburgh’s secondary. The Steelers used him all over the field in training camp, including as a slot corner, outside corner and safety.”
There’s been a lot of negative chatter surrounding Pittsburgh’s trade for Ramsey, and you can bet he’s hearing it and using it as motivation for the upcoming campaign. If he can turn back the clock for the Steelers in 2025, it could help them in their quest to find their way out of the AFC North and go on a deep playoff run.
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