Appearing on the “Stephen A. Smith Show,” the New York Jets’ star cornerback spoke about the team’s mentality entering 2024
Sauce Gardner is looking for his team to stay under the radar this season.
Appearing on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” the two-time All-Pro cornerback spoke about the New York Jets’ mindset heading into an important 2024 season.
“We gotta stay humble. We gotta stay down. All the extra social media stuff, we gotta leave that in 2023,” said Gardner.
“We gotta be some silent assassins. We gotta be those underdogs, the guys that come out of nowhere. We ain’t going to be doing too much talking this year.”
Garnder also admitted that the Jets did a lot of talking last season.
“There was a lot of attention and a lot of media; it was hard not to with a lot going on. When Aaron came, it was automatically going to ramp up a little bit. So, we gotta make sure we’re humble and all on the same page.”
.@iamSauceGardner told @stephenasmith that the #Jets plan on being ‘some silent assassins’ this offseason, ‘we gotta be those underdogs, the guys that come out of nowhere, we ain’t going to be doing too much talking this year’
Sauce Gardner admitted there was a lot of hype going… pic.twitter.com/7xufAs2TbN
— Paul Andrew Esden Jr (@BoyGreen25) January 29, 2024
The comments are another sign that the Jets’ young players understand what the team must do to reach their goals next season.
While last offseason was entertaining, it is true that the Jets leaned too far into the hype and expectations that came with acquiring Aaron Rodgers. They were excited about the quarterback upgrade and, through social media posts, showed the thought process that they had arrived as a true contender.
Additionally, Hard Knocks covering the Jets only inflated the expectations surrounding the team. The constant media coverage of the show also gave off the vibe of a team that saw itself as an immediate contender.
As the Jets found out firsthand, things change fast in the NFL. Expectations can be shattered immediately due to injuries and other circumstances, changing the outcomes of entire seasons.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the Jets would have been true contenders with Aaron Rodgers in 2023. However, his injury did happen, and the Jets crumbled in the aftermath of it.
Heading into what will be Rodgers’s return season, the Jets would be smart to heed Gardner’s advice and focus on their internal situation, not the outside noise.
