Jalen Ramsey blames NFL's new helmet rule for Marqise Lee's knee injury

The Jacksonville Jaguars may have lost one of their more important players for an extended period on Saturday, when wide receiver Marqise Lee took a low hit from Falcons safety Damontae Kazee and sustained a knee injury. Lee remained down on the field for several minutes before eventually being carted off, and after the game, the Jags seemed convinced that the injury was serious.

"It looked bad," coach Doug Marrone said during his postgame press conference." I'm waiting for the doc to tell me so I can tell you guys. … But it looked bad."

There is at least one Jaguar teammate who does not blame Kazee for what happened. Instead, All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey blames the NFL itself.

"You can't be mad at 27 [Kazee]," Ramsey said, per ESPN.com. "You have to be mad at the NFL; not mad at them, but that is how the rule is. People are scared to tackle normal because I guess they don't want to do helmet-to-helmet and get flagged. ... Game-changing stuff could happen. You don't really want to blame anyone, but you feel bad for him. I don't know, man, that's just tough to see it happen to one of my teammates, period, but you can't really blame 27."

Kazee was penalized on the play for lowering his helmet on contact. For his part, he took to Twitter after the game to let Lee know that the receiver was in his prayers.

Before i go out on the field i pray for both teams to stay healthy , i was just trying to make a football play, i will never ever try to hurt anyone, i just want to reach out to you bro and tell you that you’ll be in my prayers everyday 🙌🏾🙏🏾 @TeamLee1
— Montae Kazee (@Damontaekazee) August 26, 2018

Lee, who signed a four-year, $38 million contract this offseason, was expected to serve as Blake Bortles' No. 1 receiver this season if healthy. If he has to miss time, the slack will have to be picked up by Keelan Cole, Dede Westbrook, Donte Moncrief, and second-round pick D.J. Chark.

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