Miami Dolphins star defensive back Jalen Ramsey recently reacted to worrying claims made by Ron Jaworski, who is friends with former Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
During a recent radio appearance, Jaworski, who actually played in the 1988 NFL season for the Dolphins, said that he heard some Dolphins players didn’t want to work, put time or effort in or make a commitment to be successful under Fangio.
“Coaches coach,” Jaworski said. “I have connections as well around this league and I hear another side of that story, that there were some players on that defense that didn’t want to work. Didn’t want to put the time in, didn’t want to put the effort in, didn’t want to make the commitment to be successful.
“Guys like to party at night and South Beach is really a great place to party. And Vic tried to get those guys and push those guys to become harder workers and better athletes, and more committed to their team. And he couldn’t get through to those guys. Those were the guys that Vic was pushing, and they’re the guys that are whining right now.”
Ramsey addressed those comments on Friday while in Orlando, Fla. for the Pro Bowl Games.
“If Vic said that, then I would say that he should be man enough to address who it is,” Ramsey said. “I don’t think Vic said that, though. Personally, I don’t think Vic would do that. And I disagree. Just because I know what we were about.”
“I know how I worked for damn sure,” he added. “And I know how I led the other guys in that secondary, and I know how we worked. But yeah, at the same time, yeah, we weren’t couch potatoes. We didn’t go in the house all the time. Like I worked harder than — I’ll stand on the table and say I worked harder than anybody out here right now.
“But tonight, I’m going to be with my homies, and we’re going to chill, and we’re going to do whatever we’ve got to do. And tomorrow, I’ll be back at practice doing my thing again. So you got to have a balance in life in general, but when it’s about work and when it’s about football, you do have to be about football. But I don’t think he said that because I don’t think that’s how it was around here this year.”
As many fans have surely heard by now, Fangio and the Dolphins parted ways after just one season together. Some worrying reports have come out since then, with one of them being that the 65-year-old apparently did not let Dolphins position coaches present their work to the team’s defense, handling it himself instead.
Jevon Holland and Cam Smith, two other Dolphins defensive backs, seemingly were glad that Fangio left the team, offering some interesting social media posts after news that he was gone broke.
Fangio is now with the Philadelphia Eagles, a team he seemingly wanted to be with all along. Meanwhile, the Dolphins are still searching for his replacement.
Some external candidates are Anthony Weaver and Brandon Staley (who worked with Ramsey on the Los Angeles Rams), while Anthony Campanile (linebackers coach) and Ryan Slowik (outside linebackers coach) are internal candidates.
Weaver reportedly has emerged as the frontrunner for the job.
Ravens coach Anthony Weaver has emerged as the frontrunner for the Dolphins' DC job and likely will land the position, per @AaronWilson_NFL pic.twitter.com/T7oA4ljx6d
— Dolphin Nation (@Dolphin_Nation) February 3, 2024
Miami is coming off an 11-6 season that may seem positive on the surface, but ended in really disappointing fashion. The Dolphins seemed set to win the AFC East late in the season and even ready to secure a top-two seed in the conference, but they lost to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 17 and Buffalo Bills in Week 18.
Those two losses dropped them to the No. 6 seed in the conference, and they had to travel to freezing cold Missouri to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the playoffs instead of hosting a playoff game.
The Dolphins lost that game 26-7 and never really appeared competitive against the Chiefs, who will play the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.
Perhaps a new defensive coordinator will help Ramsey and the Dolphins make it there next season.
