Do you remember when Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey called Bills quarterback Josh Allen "trash" before the 2018 season? Allen remembers when Ramsey called him "trash," Ramsey remembers when he called Allen "trash," and by now, you probably remember too.
A season later, Ramsey's opinion of Allen hasn't changed. We know this because Allen indirectly asked Ramsey if he still thinks he's "trash" and Ramsey quickly provided an answer to Allen's inquiry. His answer? "YES."
As first reported by NewYorkUpstate.com, at the request of a fan, Allen recently signed a photo by writing "Hey Ramsey... Am I still trash?" It didn't take long for Big Cat Country, SB Nation's Jaguars-specific website, to catch wind of the autographed photo and write up a story in which writer Ryan Day concluded that "yes," Allen is, in fact, still trash. Ramsey, seeing Big Cat Country's story on Twitter, decided to weigh in himself by thanking the site for answering Allen's question for him.
For good measure, Ramsey added "#YES."
Lol thank you for answering for me @BigCatCountry #YES tf he thought! https://t.co/vIJua1CF1C
— Jalen Ramsey (@jalenramsey) February 18, 2019
"I think [Buffalo Bills draft pick Josh] Allen is trash," Ramsey told GQ's Clay Skipper before last season. "I don't care what nobody say. He's trash. And it's gonna show too. That's a stupid draft pick to me. We play them this year, and I'm excited as hell. I hope he's their starting quarterback. He played at Wyoming. Every time they played a big school—like, they played Iowa State, which is not a big school in my opinion because I went to Florida State, and he threw five interceptions, and they lost by a couple touchdowns or something like that.
"He never beat a big school. If you look at his games against big schools, it was always hella interceptions, hella turnovers. It's like: Yo, if you're this good, why couldn't you do better? He fits that mold, he's a big, tall quarterback. Big arm, supposedly. I don't see it, personally."
At the time, Allen dismissed Ramsey's remarks by saying, "I don't care one bit. I care about my teammates, what my teammates think about me." He later got his revenge when he helped the Bills beat the Jaguars, 24-21, in November. In that game, Allen completed 8 of 19 passes for 160 yards, one touchdown, no picks, and an 89.8 passer rating in addition to rushing for 99 yards and a score.
That performance encapsulates Allen's entire rookie season, during which he struggled mightily to throw the football with any sort of consistency with a 52.8 completion percentage, two more interceptions than touchdowns, and a 67.9 passer rating, but emerged as a threat in the running game with 631 yards and eight touchdowns. In Allen's defense, he was throwing to what might've been the worst receiving group in football and had a subpar offensive line, and he at least managed to salvage a broken situation by using his athleticism to manufacture yards.
But at some point, Allen will need to demonstrate the ability to throw the football with consistency. The Bills didn't trade up to take him No. 7 overall for him to play like a running back.