Tom Brady has earned the Jags' respect

FOXBORO — Jalen Ramsey, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ first-team All-Pro cornerback, thinks Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots’ first-team All-Pro tight end, is overrated.

But when it comes to Tom Brady, well, the outspoken Ramsey was a little more complimentary during an interview last month with GQ magazine. He said the five-time Super Bowl champion and the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers were the two quarterbacks in the league who "don’t [...]

FOXBORO — Jalen Ramsey, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ first-team All-Pro cornerback, thinks Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots’ first-team All-Pro tight end, is overrated.

But when it comes to Tom Brady, well, the outspoken Ramsey was a little more complimentary during an interview last month with GQ magazine. He said the five-time Super Bowl champion and the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers were the two quarterbacks in the league who “don’t suck.”

“To not suck?” Brady said with a big smile and a small chuckle Wednesday after asking how he felt about Ramsey’s pseudo praise. “I never want to suck, so I don’t want to be in that category.”

Brady and Ramsey will once again compete for team superiority and individual bragging rights when the Patriots and Jaguars meet at 4:25 p.m. Sunday at TIAA Bank Field. It’s a rematch of the AFC Championship in January at Gillette Stadium.

That afternoon started with Brady and Ramsey exchanging barbs during warmups and ended with the Patriots erasing a 10-point deficit in the final 15 minutes to earn a 24-20 victory and a return trip to the Super Bowl.

Expect more of the same Sunday when it comes to competitiveness as Brady and the Patriots’ high-scoring offense square off against Ramsey and the Jaguars’ super-stingy defense.

“It’s going to be an emotional environment,” Brady said. “I think everyone, whenever you play some of the best teams, you want to see where you’re measured up to, and that defense was ranked very high all last year, and I could see why.”

The Patriots have averaged 30.4 points in their last eight games — all wins — against the Jaguars, who allowed 16.8 points a game last season, good for second in the league.

The Patriots opened the season by scoring 27 points in a win over the Houston Texans. The Jaguars gave up 15 points while posting a road win over the New York Giants.

The Jaguars are loaded with talent at all three levels and return six defenders who were selected to the Pro Bowl last season in defensive linemen Calais Campbell, Malik Jackson and Yannick Ngakoue, linebacker Telvin Smith, and cornerbacks A.J. Bouye and Ramsey.

And third-year linebacker Myles Jack didn’t make the cut. The second overall pick in the 2016 draft returned an interception 32 yards for a touchdown against the Giants in Week 1 and, you might recall, had a fumble return for a touchdown in the AFC Championship negated when the play was erroneously blown dead.

“It’s pretty tough,” Brady said of the Jacksonville D. “They were a great team last year and gave us everything we could handle in the championship game, and they’re at it again this year. They’ve got the same players, similar scheme — I mean, as good as any defense we’ll face all year. … It’s going to be a very challenging, tough environment and we’ll see what we’re made of.”

Brady has been dynamite against the Jaguars, completing 71.6 percent of his passes and tossing 19 touchdowns against two interceptions while going 8-0.

“Obviously, probably the greatest quarterback that’s played, and I mean that sincerely,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said. “Tommy’s a, you know, I’ve seen him for a long time and he’s a great competitor. The guy’s won a ton of football games and he’s very difficult to beat.”

The biggest lesson the Jaguars took away from their loss in the AFC Championship is they need to put forth a full effort for four quarters if they want to alter the outcome in the rematch eight months later.

So the message out of North Florida has been to finish strong and close out games because no lead is safe — especially when it’s against Brady & Co.

“He’s a special guy, so we have to play for 60 minutes and maybe more because it’s never over with him,” Campbell said. “We’ve seen it time and time again. You go back to the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl, I mean, it’s like, wow.”

It’s almost enough to leave Ramsey speechless when it comes to the likes of Gronkowski and Brady.