In a shocking blockbuster trade, CB Jalen Ramsey is now a Pittsburgh Steeler. Today, I wanted to look at Ramsey’s 2024 season for the Dolphins statistically. The goal is to see what his pros and cons were in anticipation for what things could look like in the Steel City in 2025.
The situation that comes to mind for the position first is coverage. So, I’ll start with targets and catch rate allowed:
Of 34 players with at least 850 total snaps, Ramsey (and Steeler Joey Porter Jr.) lands below the mean in each. The better news is Ramsey being targeted 65 times, sixth-least among qualifiers. With Ramsey, Porter, and also new Steeler Darius Slay, opposing quarterbacks will have to pick and choose their battles against arguably the best CB trio on paper for 2025.
The flip side is allowing a poor 70.8-percent catch rate, fifth-worst of the 34 qualifiers. There are many factors to the stat, such as defensive scheme and usage, but we also see that it wasn’t a shutdown corner type of season in 2024. In fact, that is the worst catch rate allowed in Ramsey’s nine year career to date. Worse than expected, no doubt.
Speaking of which, there is another element of Ramsey’s play that jumps out negatively on the stat sheet. Here are missed tackle rates at the position, along with total defensive snaps:
Not only was Ramsey’s missed tackle rate an issue, it was third-worst among the same 34 qualifiers. That number was 19.4-percent, which is not what Steelers fans want to see after too many issues in that regard in 2025 overall. In comparison, Porter had an 11.7-percent missed tackle rate (on less snaps), with the best and worst numbers coming in at 0.0 and 20.8-percent.
This was also the worst result of Ramsey’s career, with only one other missed tackle rate worse than 10.0 (14.0-percent) in 2020. So, the optimistic view is that the missed tackle rate in 2024 was an outlier given his track record, but seeing multiple facets of Ramsey’s game trailing off is the flip side.
On paper, some issues in coverage and tackling jumped out as some of the worst 2024 stats for Ramsey, clearly.
Now for some great news. Lets look at run defense snaps and run defense grades from Pro Football Focus (PFF):
We definitely get a rosier picture here, with Ramsey posting the second-best 85.7 run defense grade among 32 qualifiers with a minimum of 325 run defense snaps. This came on 373 run defense snaps, ranking 18th of the group. That is a bit below average, but maximized quality run defense overall.
Comparing this to Porter’s 353 run defense snaps, the results illustrated by the grades were night and day at 60.4, seventh-worst among this group and substantially lower than Ramsey. Pittsburgh has certainly prioritized better run defense this season. Ramsey is no exception, and hopefully aids this hope as much as the stats indicate from 2024.
Lastly, another positive that comes with the Ramsey addition are his pass rushing contributions. Here are pass rush snaps and total pressures of cornerbacks with at least ten pass rushes (34 qualifiers):
First, Ramsey provided the most total pressures among cornerbacks last season with 12. He was the only player at the position in double digits, so his impact there was undeniable. As you’d expect, his opportunities were ample too, with 47 pass rushes which ranked fourth-most. Quality and quantity, for sure.
The majority of qualifiers land on the bottom left, highlighting that many corners aren’t asked to pass rush often or put up gaudy pressure numbers. This includes returning Steeler Beanie Bishop Jr., who had 14 pass rushes (24th) and three total pressures (16th).
Bishop of course played slot corner primarily, which requires a very versatile skillset. While Ramsey played primarily outside last season, he did have 185 slot snaps. With his more varied skillset, I’m with several Depot crew members being intrigued for him to get more slot opportunities, which I will likely break down in a future article soon.
That would bode well for a room that changed a lot this offseason, and for a team that has lacked a consistent presence that needs to be strong in all areas. If it were to pan out this way, Ramsey will hopefully be able to positively trend in coverage and cleaning up missed tackles. This was cleaner for most of his career, so not out of the question, and here’s to hoping it’s the case, along with continued success as a run defender and pass rusher.
