Jalen Ramsey talked trash about QBs, and his assessments held up in Week 1

We spend so much time arguing about quarterbacks, evaluating them on an imaginary curve that runs from eliteness to game managers to Bills starter. It’s a fine way to fill air time if you’re mandated to embrace debate, but it’s soooooo unsatisfying.

And useless. There is no need to take such measures to evaluate quarterbacks, not when we have Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

The game’s most entertaining shutdown corner and honest talking head ran down the league’s signal callers in an August interview with GQ that was oh so spicy :chef kiss:.

Just one week into the season, it’s hard to find holes in Ramsey’s evaluations.

Let’s start by revisiting what Ramsey said about Ben Roethlisberger.

“Big Ben [Roethlisberger], I think he’s decent at best … It’s not Big Ben, it’s [Antonio Brown]. Big Ben slings the ball a lot of the time. He just slings it, and his receivers go get it. He has a strong arm, but he ain’t all that. I played him twice last year, and he really disappointed me. He’ll be in the Hall of Fame and all that.”

A take so hot it still burns a month later.

Okay, now let’s look at Roethlisberger’s performance in a 21-21 tie at the Browns on Sunday.

23/41, 335 yards, one touchdown, FOUR interceptions and one fumble.

Read Ramsey’s statement again. Now, point to the lie.

A solid five turnover day for Big Ben, including an overtime pick that broke the Browns’ winless streak (with a tie). His one touchdown pass went to, who else, Antonio Brown.

Not even Antonio Brown can bail you out when you’re making WTF throws into triple coverage.

“He’s trash. And it’s gonna show too.”

I know Ramsey’s assessment was a bitter pill for Bills fans to swallow. Fortunately, the coaching staff’s strange infatuation with five-interception debut Nathan Peterman gave everyone in Buffalo the chance to keep their heads in the sand about Allen.

But there’s a price to pay when you doubt Ramsey’s prescience.

Allen lived up to the assessment against the Ravens on Sunday. His first throw was incomplete. After looking at his first read, who was covered, on the first third down of his pro career, he ran around and got sacked. Things never really improved for him from there.

The Bills rookie finished the game 6-for-15 with 74 yards and no touchdowns. But he didn’t throw two picks like Peterman, who’s so bad he didn’t even merit Ramsey’s attention.

Maybe he heard Ramsey saying “overrated” while he stood in the pocket and absorbed hit after hit from the Eagles this week. Maybe he was just rusty.

“You can’t tell me you win MVP two years ago, and then last year, you a complete bust ...”

Early returns in 2018 are not looking good.

“And just being honest about it, [Joe] Flacco sucks. I played him two years in a row. He sucks.”

Not this week. Flacco was good enough against the Bills to revive the “elite” debate, sans irony. He finished the day with three touchdowns, 236 yards and a 74 percent completion rate.

He was playing the Bills though. Then again ...

That’s a pretty nice throw, regardless of the opponent.

Ramsey’s take on Flacco doesn’t hold up this week.

“I won’t say Eli’s good, I’ll say Odell’s good. And their connection is good.”

Ramsey saw plenty of Odell Beckham Jr. this week, except when he didn’t. And when he didn’t, Odell produced. He finished with a nice stat line for your fantasy team, 11 catches for 111 yards.

Still, Ramsey and the Jags kept Odell from scoring, with a little help from none other than Eli Manning. The Giants quarterback overthrew Odell twice on plays that should have been touchdowns.

Ramsey missed on this QB evaluation, at least for this week — the quarterback-receiver connection wasn’t all that great after all. Let’s say he’s half right.

Grading your own quarterback teeters between dicey and disingenuous. Ramsey walked that line pretty well in that infamous GQ interview, but he’s not been shy about sharing his feelings on Bortles in the past. Few social media likes have ever been so scrutinized.

Here’s what he told GQ:

“Blake do what he gotta do … I think in crunch time moments, like last year’s playoff game — not as a team, because we would have trusted him — but I think as an organization, we should have trusted him more to keep throwing it.”

Ramsey’s there so that Bortles only has to do what he has to do. A defense like that makes life so much easier for a QB ... it’s the only way the Nick Foles and Trent Dilfers of the world can win a Super Bowl.

After this week, he might want to rethink that part about letting Bortles throw it. The Jags QB finished 18-for-33 with 176 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He almost turned into a pumpkin once the Jags lost running back Leonard Fornette.

That’s basically Ramsey’s begrudging acknowledgement of eliteness. These guys all lived up to that this week too.

Drew Brees, Saints; Tom Brady, Patriots; Kirk Cousins, Vikings; Philip Rivers, Chargers; Russell Wilson, Seahawks

All five of these guys had a fine Sunday, if maybe a little average for what we’ve come to expect. Together, they combined for 1,682 yards, 14 touchdowns and five picks. Cousins was the only one who didn’t throw three touchdowns.

Three touchdowns and a 20-point comeback ... yeah, he does not suck.

Not a great day for Watson, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of day where you can overlook what he did last year. Remember too, Ramsey said it would be a couple years before Watson won an MVP.

We didn’t get to see much of Mariota because he left with an injury.

To paraphrase, Ramsey dubbed Foles “good enough to win the Eagles a Super Bowl,” which is a really nice way of busting out the ol’ game manager title. You don’t have to squint between the lines here to understand that he’s talking more about the Eagles dragging Foles to Super Bowl win rather than the other way around.

That’s pretty much what happened this week in Philly’s win over the Falcons. Foles wasn’t pretty, but effective enough. And that probably had a lot to do with the fact that Falcons QB Matt Ryan played exactly how into Ramsey’s assessment characterizes him.

Others who lived up to the marginally passing grades from Ramsey — Tyrod Taylor, Browns; Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers

“I don’t really think he’s that good. Him and T.Y. [Hilton] had a connection in the past that made him stand out a little bit more, but I don’t think he’s good.”

It’s hard to separate the memory of how Andrew Luck played versus the reality, since we haven’t seen him play in almost two years. He did just fine in his return, throwing three touchdowns and a pick along, dodging defenders. Hilton only managed to catch 5 of the 11 throws Luck threw his way, but he did score a touchdown.

“I don’t know much about him. I haven’t heard the greatest of stuff about him but I don’t know him personally so I can’t tell you.”

Let’s fill you in — game manager.

We’ll check back periodically to see how Ramsey’s QB grades holdup, for, you know, science and stuff.