Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones thinks a disciplinary action taken against Florida State defensive back Jalen Ramsey shows that Ramsey is just the kind of player the Cowboys need.
Jones said that Ramsey, whom the Cowboys are considering drafting with the fourth overall pick on Thursday night, is the kind of competitor he wants in Dallas. Jones said an incident in which Ramsey got in trouble for being too rough in practice reminded him of the kinds of fierce competitions Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin used to have during the Cowboys’ 1990s glory days.
“We’ve got a couple of players in this draft that are really inspirational practice players,” Jones said, via the Star-Telegram. “[Ramsey] got suspended from playing a regular season game because he was too aggressive at his own practice. Now who does that remind you of around here? I think Deion and Michael and those guys used to go at it, and both said the games are the easiest part. The practice against each other was the rough part. Ramsey does bring some of that to the table, and two or three others. If you’re up at the top of this draft, you really somehow like to come out with something like that. That’s hard to find. When you see one that is suspended and couldn’t play in the game because he was too rough on his own players, it’s a good sign that he enjoys the physical part of the game.”
For the record, Ramsey wasn’t actually suspended from Florida State and started every game during all three of his seasons with the Seminoles. But Ramsey did get kicked out of a practice in 2014 for laying a hit on a blocking back so hard that the blocker fell into quarterback Jameis Winston’s legs, and coach Jimbo Fisher was angry enough about Ramsey’s actions that he threatened to kick him off the team, saying, “He was told not to do something and he defied me. We’ll judge from there. He’ll decide if he wants to play at Florida State.”
A less talented player might be viewed as a troublemaker for doing something like that, but when it’s a player as talented as Ramsey, it’s the kind of thing that gets him labeled a fiery competitor. It’s the kind of competition that Jones wants to see on the Cowboys’ practice field.
