Jalen Ramsey has made no bones this week -- or any other week, for that matter -- about how he matches up against his opponent.
In Sunday's AFC Championship Game, the Jacksonville Jaguars All-Pro cornerback will have to back up his fighting words against perhaps his toughest matchup this season: New England Patriots superhuman Rob Gronkowski. Ramsey, to no one's surprise, is not intimidated in the slightest.
"He hasn't played a corner like me before," he told reporters Friday. When asked exactly what he meant by the statement, Ramsey quickly replied, "Everything."
This bold claim comes on the heels of Ramsey proclaiming to a sympathetic crowd in Jacksonville last Sunday that the Jags were "going to the Super Bowl. And we gonna win that b----. We gonna win that b----," adding "Duuuuuuuuvalllll" for needed emphasis.
Brashness aside, it will be interesting to see how often Ramsey, who usually plays his opponent's top pass-catcher, will line up across from Gronkowski, who is often motioned outside of the pocket and used like a wide receiver. Tashaun Gipson, the Jacksonville safety usually tasked with manning tight ends, is questionable to play with a foot injury, leaving Barry Church and potentially Ramsey to pick up the slack.
After allowing 6.6 targets and 4.1 receptions toward tight ends in their first 17 games, Jacksonville surrendered 18 targets, 11 catches and 124 yards to Steelers tight ends last week. Might the game's greatest tight end one-up Vance McDonald this week?
Once the game kicks off, all this back-and-forth will be rendered moot and these articles will rot on the trash heap of internet history. But in the meantime, the jawing makes for good fun and fodder, as Jalen Ramsey gets to spout confident barbs without immediate consequence and the Patriots get to ignore him.
