IRVINE, Calif. — Jalen Ramsey can’t take part in all field work as he recovers from shoulder surgery, but with play script in hand, the Los Angeles Rams cornerback looked like an assistant coach on the sideline during the team’s second training camp practice.
Ramsey, who spoke Monday for the first time since his June surgery, said despite his limited role on the practice field right now, there’s “no doubt in my mind I’ll be ready when the time is right.”
The cornerback’s surgery date was “calculated,” he said, because he and the Rams’ training staff wanted to give the shoulder a chance to heal by itself. Ramsey said both parties had a deadline in mind by which the shoulder needed to get better to avoid surgery.
“I was hoping that certain things would heal on their own given some time off, not reinjuring it every Sunday by hitting or whatever the case may have been,” Ramsey said. “It didn’t work out that way. It just got to the point where it was a little too yucky, a little too messed up in there, and it just needed to be cleaned out and made new again.”
Ramsey said helping out his teammates on the field is fun for him because “it’s kind of the only way I can enjoy it, because I want to be out there.” Coach Sean McVay said watching Ramsey on the sideline is exactly why he changed his mind about having the cornerback start training camp on the physically unable to perform list and therefore be unable to practice.
“[For him] to be out here influences guys in the right way,” McVay said. “It’s a real positive. You see how engaged he is in some of the jog-through stuff that we’re able to do. But him just being able to be around his teammates with the kind of leader, the kind of player that he is, nothing but good things come from that.”
Ramsey said he was in less pain after the surgery than he was when he played through the injury last season but is still dealing with some shoulder fatigue.
“So if I needed to be out there, I’ll say that, then I’d go on and get out there,” Ramsey said. “But I’m going to make sure I’m 100 percent. And it’s a lot of me leaning on the training staff and the coaches because, like I said, if it was up to me, I’d probably go out there and thug it out again for another however many weeks I have to do it.
“I want to be the best version of myself this year for myself and for my teammates. So I’m just going to listen to what they tell me to do and be smart about it.”