Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner, whose Super Bowl week media tour abruptly ended after he apparently said a little more than he should have said about the looming pursuit of Aaron Rodgers, had some things to say now that Rodgers will be heading to Green Bay.
Appearing on the Slow News Day podcast with Kevin Clark, Gardner was asked whether the team’s protracted postseason drought ends this year.
“Most definitely,” Gardner replied. “We were a playoff team last year, you know, we just -- we didn’t finish like we were supposed to. But with A-Rod joining and a few more new pieces, that just makes it like easy.”
Gardner took to Twitter to clarify his comments. “Easier,” he now says, not “easy.”
It was smart for him to do it. Last year, they didn’t make the playoffs, even though Gardner insisted they were a playoff team. This year, they might not make the playoffs, either.
They’re suddenly in one of the toughest divisions in the league, and they otherwise play the Chiefs, Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, and Chargers.
So even though Rodgers will sell tickets and jerseys and other stuff, and he will make the Jets a darling of the NFL’s standalone-game scheduling process, his presence guarantees no more for the Jets than Russell Wilson’s did for the Broncos in 2022.
And new Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett knows a thing or two about that.