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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Jalen Ramsey sprinted onto the field to celebrate a deep touchdown pass as though the Los Angeles Rams finally ended the longest end zone drought.

“It was cool for him to be out there celebrating with me,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said after passing for his first touchdown in L.A. in a Week 1 victory over the Chicago Bears. “I was having fun, he seemed like he was having a good time, too.”

He’ll also light up social media if inaccuracies are tweeted his way.

“Sometimes I feel like you’ve got to set the record straight,” Ramsey said.

And this season, Ramsey is not only coming for the NFL’s best receivers, but is after every last player on the opposing team. Perhaps consider this a warning.

“Ain’t no player like him in the National Football League,” three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald said. “He can do it all.”

In his sixth NFL season, Ramsey’s confidence remains firmly intact and perhaps has been taken to a new level with a transition from cornerback to all-around defensive back. Bored and discontented for so many seasons standing on an island, watching opposing quarterbacks play keep away as he locked down their top targets, this season Ramsey wants to shut down the entire offense.

In his unique Ramsey style.

“He plays corner, plays safety, plays nickel, plays basically an outside linebacker spot at times,” Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said. “I’m glad he’s wearing No. 5. We can find him now.”

On Thursday, Russell Wilson will be the quarterback scanning across the line of scrimmage trying to locate Ramsey when the Rams (3-1) play the Seattle Seahawks (2-2) in an NFC West matchup at Lumen Field (8:20 p.m. ET, Fox/NFL Network).

“He can really obviously cover guys, he can make plays on the ball, he’s a physical tackler, he’s really intelligent too; you can tell on film. But they’ve mixed him around,” Wilson said. “They’ve put him outside, obviously, which is his normal thing. But also they have him inside playing some slot and he’ll pressure off the edge some too.”

“Wherever he lines up and whoever he is covering,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said, “you’re in for trouble.”

An admirer of Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Woodson, Ramsey’s game boasts many similarities to the former Oakland Raider and Green Bay Packer.

“The physical nature, the off-the-charts football awareness and intelligence,” said secondary coach Ejiro Evero, a former teammate of Woodson’s in Oakland. “I think that’s one thing that Jalen doesn’t get enough credit for is he is one of the smartest football players I have ever been around.”

But Ramsey, who turns 27 this month, wants to make his own name in his own way.

“I wouldn’t say I model my game after anybody just because I like to be unique in my own ways, make a name for myself,” Ramsey said. “But [Woodson] is, in my opinion, the best defensive back to ever play the game.”

A longtime lockdown cornerback, last season defensive coordinator Brandon Staley — now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers — altered Ramsey’s role so he could make a greater impact, seemingly hard to fathom when he already took away half the field. But the move was a success, as he played part-time lockdown corner on the outside and part-time disruptor on the inside.

This season, first-year defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, a 19-year NFL coaching veteran, and Ramsey — a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro selection — have taken the move a step further.

The 6-foot-1, 208-pound Ramsey has lined up in the slot on 149 snaps and has played 98 snaps on the outside. As the nearest defender, he’s allowed 17 catches on 29 targets.

“Last year was sprinkled in here and there, but this year it’s kind of no boundaries to where I may be during the game. I have no limits to a specific game plan,” Ramsey said. “I don’t know where I’m going to be playing each week.”

He’ll take on offensive linemen, will lock down on the outside, affect, influence and disrupt on the inside. Ramsey can drop into coverage, he can blitz and there’s no doubt at some point this season he’s bound to record his first NFL sack.

“This guy absolutely embraces it and loves it and wants it,” Morris said. “He’s able to go in and mix it up with the big boys, is able to go out and play with the skilled guys and match skill with those guys.”

In the Week 1 rout of the Bears, Ramsey asserted himself with three tackles for a loss in a single series, including a play in which he powered through a block to drive receiver Darnell Mooney deep into the turf for a two-yard setback.

“There’s a difference between tackling and hitting, and I like to hit,” said Ramsey, who was taught the fundamentals of tackling from his dad and youth football coaches. “It’s just sometimes a will and a want to.”

The following week, Ramsey was deep in coverage when he stared down Indianapolis Colts backup quarterback Jacob Eason, then jumped a route to intercept a pass and effectively end any chance of a game-winning Colts drive in a 27-24 Rams win.

“They can never kind of figure out when I was moving, when I was going to be inside, outside, wherever I was at during the game,” Ramsey said, chuckling. “And honestly, I’m right there with them because I don’t know either.”

After a statement victory over quarterback Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers in Week 3, Brady met Ramsey at midfield. The two shared a mutual admiration, and the seven-time Super Bowl champion smiled as he told Ramsey how close he came to taking him down.

“You played great,” Brady told Ramsey, who had eight tackles and pressured Brady twice. “You were — inches.”

“I was, right?” Ramsey responded. “Hold it just a little bit longer next time!”

And in Week 4, despite a Rams letdown in all three phases in a blowout loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Ramsey remained a problem for receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who caught four passes for 67 yards on seven targets — though with Ramsey as the nearest defender on three of those targets, Hopkins caught only one pass.

“He’s probably been the defensive MVP thus far when you look at the impact he’s had on games,” Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said before the win that moved his team into first place in the NFC West. “He’s as versatile of a player as there is and it’s been really impressive to watch the physicality that he’s playing with this season.”

“He likes to be challenged, he likes to move around and likes to do different things,” Morris said. “He is certainly a challenge for me when it comes to finding different ways to keep him motivated and keep him that active.”

Ramsey has 24 tackles this season, tied with teammate Darious Williams for second among NFL cornerbacks. Williams’ presence allows Ramsey to roam as much as he does.

“I just tell D-Will, ‘Let’s switch or let’s move’ or whatever the case may be,” Ramsey said. “Him being able to do that allows me to like play more freely and be able to do it more.”

For Ramsey, this role is part of who he has always been. He just hasn’t previously been in a position to show it. At Florida State, the Seminoles needed him to play cornerback. Then he saw more of the same when the Jacksonville Jaguars selected him with the fifth overall pick in 2016. In his first season with the Rams after he was traded midway through 2019, he locked down the outside. Then, Staley and Morris empowered him to do more.

“I don’t view myself as just a corner, that’s just what I’ve been playing out of necessity of whatever team I’ve been a part of and how I’ve been viewed in the league,” Ramsey said. “I feel like I’m just a defensive back, so I could play anywhere on the field and it’s just part of my game.”

“If you just watched him the whole game,” McVay said, “you’d say that guy is a unique, special talent that plays with great energy and passion every single snap.

“He’s kind of one of one.”

ESPN’s Brady Henderson contributed to this report.

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2025 World Series: Live updates and analysis from Game 5

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2025 World Series: Live updates and analysis from Game 5

All the Toronto Blue Jays had to do after losing an 18-inning epic in Game 3 of the 2025 World Series was bounce back quickly — and beat starting pitcher/DH Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4.

Well, they did just that — and the Fall Classic is tied at 2-2. With the series sure to head back to Toronto, what will happen in the final game in L.A.? Game 5’s winner will be one victory from a ring; the loser will be one loss from heartbreak.

Follow all the action — from live analysis during the game to our postgame takeaways — right here.

Key links: World Series schedule, results

Live analysis

Gamecast: Follow the action pitch-by-pitch here

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Sources: Twins pick Shelton to be next manager

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Sources: Twins pick Shelton to be next manager

The Minnesota Twins are hiring former Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton to be the team’s new manager, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Wednesday.

Shelton, who was fired on May 8 as the Pirates quickly slipped into last place in the National League Central, will replace Rocco Baldelli, who was fired by Minnesota on Sept. 29.

The 55-year-old Shelton was the bench coach for the Twins in 2018 and 2019 under two different managers, Paul Molitor and Baldelli.

New York Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, who held that role for the Twins under both Molitor and Baldelli before leaving to become bench coach of the Miami Marlins in 2020, was also one of the finalists. Former Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais and current Chicago Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty reportedly were in the mix, too.

The Twins are one of nine MLB teams who have changed managers this year.

Shelton was named manager of the Pirates in November 2019 as part of a franchise-wide reset by owner Bob Nutting. It was his first major league managing job after serving as a coach in various capacities in Tampa Bay, Toronto and Minnesota, and he went 306-440 in his five-plus seasons with Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh won less than 40% of its games in Shelton’s first three seasons before taking a step forward in 2023 when it won 76 games. Paul Skenes‘ arrival in 2024 gave the franchise another jolt, and the Pirates were in playoff contention until an August swoon. In 2025, the Pirates’ offense under Shelton languished near the bottom of the NL.

The Twins, who were expected to contend for the AL Central title this season, faltered in June and became active at the trade deadline, sending away 10 players while cutting $26 million from the payroll. The team went 23-43 after the All-Star break to finish fourth in the division with a 70-92 mark.

It was the fourth-worst record in the major leagues and their worst mark since 2016.

Attendance swooned at Target Field this season, with the Twins finishing with an 81-home game total of a little more than 1.7 million tickets sold, their lowest number in a non-pandemic season since 2000, when they played at the Metrodome and finished 69-93.

Fans mostly have directed their disdain toward ownership, with deep frustration over cost cutting that came after the 2023 breakthrough Baldelli led with the end of a record 18-game postseason losing streak and the club’s first win of a playoff series in 21 years.

Executive chair Joe Pohlad and his family members put the franchise up for sale in 2024, but decided in August to keep control and bring on two new investment groups for an infusion of cash to help pay down debt.

The New York Post first reported news on Shelton’s hiring by the Twins.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jays’ Springer feeling better, won’t start Game 5

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Jays' Springer feeling better, won't start Game 5

LOS ANGELES — Blue Jays designated hitter George Springer won’t start Game 5 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, but Toronto manager John Schneider indicated Springer could be available off the bench.

Springer, who also missed Game 4 after leaving Game 3 early with right side discomfort, did some hitting in the batting cage and some running Wednesday.

“George is feeling better,” Schneider said Wednesday afternoon. “I think better than he expected to feel, better than we expected him to feel, which is saying a lot.”

Bo Bichette will serve as the team’s DH in place of Springer in Game 5 while Isiah Kiner-Falefa will start at second base.

The 36-year-old Springer left Monday’s contest after taking an awkward swing in the seventh inning of the Dodgers’ eventual 18-inning victory. He is 3-for-11 with two runs scored in the World Series, which is tied 2-2.

He has been a key member of the Blue Jays’ postseason run but is likely to watch at least one more game before the Series takes a day off Thursday. With the extra time to heal, it means Springer could be ready for Friday’s Game 6 in Toronto.

“He’s had an unbelievable year, and I think that he has done a phenomenal job of kind of setting the tone for us, not just at the plate but in the clubhouse and keeping tabs on guys,” Schneider said. “It’s been fun to watch him. It’s been really fun after a tough year last year for him and us.”

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