Jalen Ramsey leaves no doubt about where Cooper Kupp stands at WR

Jalen Ramsey and Cooper Kupp were teammates in Los Angeles for three and a half years and helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI in 2021. Because Ramsey and Kupp were on the same team for so long, they often saw each other on the field during practice.

Ramsey always had great respect for Kupp’s play and regularly praised the Rams’ wide receiver, and that admiration hasn’t waned now that they are no longer on the same team. Ramsey still considers Kupp one of the best wideouts in football and ranked him in the top five at his position heading into Monday night’s game between the Rams and Dolphins.

“They were great,” Ramsey said, via the Palm Beach Post. “I have great respect for Coop. I easily believe he is a top 5 receiver. He and Matthew (Stafford) have chemistry, a great connection. And yes, it really was an iron sharpening iron. We worked. We made each other better.”

Ramsey may be in Miami now, but he still has a lot of love for Los Angeles and the Rams, saying the city of LA is “like home to me.”

“I never had the opportunity to give a parting gift to everyone out there,” Ramsey said. “For me it’s like a home. It’s like a family. I have family from out there. My daughter was born there. Great memories out there. Eternal memories of the community, I always treated myself and my family right, just loved and respected. So there are still a lot of ties out there. Still go there often. Lots of positive energy out there. I can’t say anything negative about my time there.”

On Monday, Ramsey will be back in Los Angeles for the first time to face his former team, which traded him to the Dolphins in 2023. That underscores the magnitude of this matchup between the Rams and Dolphins, which could be a must-win game for his two-6 Miami team.

If there’s one receiver who will likely see Ramsey in coverage a lot, it’s Kupp. Both players primarily perform in the slot, as they often did in practice when they were Rams teammates.

Kupp remembered the struggles in Los Angeles and appreciated how they made each other better.

“All those ‘Mamba’ periods. There were a lot of moments where he played that star role for us for a while, and since I was in the role most of the time, we ended up competing against each other a lot,” Kupp said Friday. “It was always so competitive. The physicality and urgency with which he plays lets you hit him there. You can’t hesitate at all. That was something I really appreciated about the way Jalen played the game.”

Ramsey’s first season in Miami in 2023 did not go according to plan as he struggled to get going in Vic Fangio’s defense. But in 2024, according to PFF, he is the Dolphins’ highest-graded player on defense (83.4), tied with Calais Campbell.

The Rams know how talented and impactful Ramsey can be in the secondary, so they will try to find ways to attack other defenders instead of focusing on the All-Pro corner. That’s not to say Kupp will shy away from this matchup, but there are better ways to exploit Miami’s defense.