JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan said he recently had a "heart-to-heart" meeting with Jalen Ramsey and thinks the disgruntled cornerback will play against New Orleans on Sunday.
Ramsey later said that he's still trying to get healthy.
Khan made his comments as part of an interview with the business website The Street, in which he also discussed sports gambling and his desire not to trade Ramsey.
"I think he's going to be playing this week, so hopefully you'll tune in to the Saints game," Khan said in the video interview.
Ramsey has been bothered by a back injury and visited a specialist on Monday in Houston. He practiced on a limited basis on Wednesday, the first time he has practiced in any capacity since Sept. 18, and was scheduled to do the same on Thursday.
Ramsey said on the Uninterrupted podcast "17 Weeks" that he is still experiencing symptoms.
″I mean, with back tightness, I'm sure a lot of guys have back tightness, but when you start to get back spasms and it starts to lock up on you and even sometimes feels like, I guess, a stinger or a tingling sensation in your back, then that's when you have to be super careful with it and cautious,″ Ramsey said.
″You know, rehab it and recover it as best as you can. So that's really the phase that I'm in right now is trying to manage the spasms and it locking up on me, and having that tingly sensation, it can lock up on me at any given time.″
Coach Doug Marrone said Wednesday the team would be careful with Ramsey to avoid a setback and help him recover in time to possibly play against New Orleans on Sunday.
"I think we're just going to take it step by step," Marrone said. "We'll stretch in here and see how that goes. If that goes well, then we'll go outside. We'll warm up, we'll stretch, and if that goes well, we'll go to the next [step]. We'll just take it step by step."
Ramsey reported the back injury during the Jaguars' victory over Tennessee on Sept. 19. Four days earlier, Ramsey had asked the Jaguars to trade him after he was chastised by Tom Coughlin, the team's executive vice president of football operations, following a 13-12 loss at Houston. During that game, Ramsey got into a sideline shouting match with Marrone after the coach refused Ramsey's request to challenge a completion to DeAndre Hopkins.
Ramsey played against the Titans but did not practice the following Monday because of an illness. He also missed that Wednesday's practice with the back injury. Marrone said he didn't know when Ramsey suffered the injury, but three hours later the team released a statement saying Ramsey actually did report back soreness to the medical staff during the fourth quarter of the game against the Titans.
Later that day, the team announced that Ramsey would return to his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, for the impending birth of his second child.
Ramsey rejoined the Jaguars three days later and flew on the team charter to Denver. He was inactive for the game against the Broncos, the first game he had missed since the Jaguars drafted him fifth overall in 2016.
Ramsey did not practice at all last week and did not play against Carolina.