Jalen Ramsey will 'have his moments' on DeAndre Hopkins but may not shadow him

[theramswire.usatoday.com]
Jalen Ramsey will 'have his moments' on DeAndre Hopkins but may not shadow him

Cameron DaSilva
October 1, 2021 4:55 am PT

Every time the Rams and Cardinals square off, fans are treated to a matchup between arguably the NFL’s best wide receiver against the top cornerback in football. DeAndre Hopkins and Jalen Ramsey are as good as it gets at each position, and seeing them go at it when the Cardinals have the ball is truly a treat.

For the most part, Ramsey followed Hopkins around the field in their two meetings last season, covering him on the majority of Arizona’s offensive plays. But this season, Ramsey has played a more versatile and unpredictable role. He’s become an outstanding slot defender, impacting the game not only in coverage but also as a run defender and blitzer off the edge.


For that reason, Ramsey may not shadow Hopkins wherever he goes. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris says he’ll have his moments against Hopkins but he can’t say for sure that Ramsey will be isolated on him.

“Jalen is so unique in himself that his ability to move around and do stuff and affect the game based on situations,” he said Thursday. “We’ve been able to move him around a little bit. I know in the past Jalen’s kind of shadowed D-Hop a lot and done it more. I’m sure he’ll have his moments on him. He had his moments last week on Mike (Evans), he had his moments last week on different types of receivers. He’s been really active this year. So, it’s hard to say you’re going to isolate him with the amount of guys that they have. It’s about your other guys stepping up and playing football as well. We just talked about the pickup basketball game. Sometimes with pick a basketball game, there’s a lot of fast breaks and you get caught on different people. And when you get caught on different people, you got to man up and you got to depend on your brother to man up. It may be that type of game a little bit down the stretch.”

The Cardinals do have more weapons now than they did in the past couple of years. In addition to Hopkins, they brought in A.J. Green, drafted Rondale Moore and still have the speedy Christian Kirk.

There are more players to account for when they’re on offense, making it tougher to stick Ramsey on Hopkins for the entire game. The game plan doesn’t exactly funnel through Hopkins the way it used to, either.

He’s been targeted 18 times, tied with Green for the most on the team. Murray has also thrown 17 passes to Chase Edmonds, 17 to Kirk and 15 to Moore, so he’s spreading the ball around.

That puts some pressure on Darious Williams and David Long Jr. to step up, in addition to Ramsey playing at his typically high level.