NY Jets’ Sauce Gardner calls out NFL officiating

No team in the NFL has been called for more penalties over the last three seasons than the New York Jets.

Through four weeks in 2025, the Jets have improved to only having the 10th-most penalties (32) after leading the NFL in each of the last two seasons. But with 13 penalties during Monday night’s loss to Miami, the Jets were back to their old ways.

Even with a new coaching staff, new schemes, and a fresh mindset, the issue has barely changed.

On many occasions, the calls are justified. New York has played a sloppy brand of football over the last few seasons. Late hits due to over-aggressive play, pre-snap mental lapses, and everything in between have been called on them.

But as bad as Gang Green’s penalty problem has grown, some within the organization have begun to question whether the issue is more due to referees developing a bias against the team.

Monday’s latest loss added some intrigue to that thought.

Jets address penalty differential

New York was called for 13 penalties in its Monday night loss to the Miami Dolphins. While many were pre-snap on the offensive end, there were plenty of questionable calls being made on both sides of the field.

From a phantom offensive pass interference call on Garrett Wilson to a non-call on a clear late hit to Jeremy Ruckert’s head, the Jets received a ton of bad breaks in their 27-21 loss. They had more than twice as many penalties as Miami did during the contest.

That has left some players, namely All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner, looking for answers.

“I’m personally frustrated,” Gardner said after the game on Monday. “I watch football and I just feel like — and I don’t know if this is wrong to say — but I think I get called for more stuff just based off of us not winning. I watch these winning programs and there’s some egregious things that don’t get called.

“We don’t win and I feel like don’t get the calls that we should get and we get calls we shouldn’t get called for.”

Gardner has been called for penalties in each of the last two games that could be classified as “borderline” at worst. That hasn’t stopped NFL officials from calling the Jets on those infractions.

Why isn’t there more consistency? Why are the Jets being called for penalties like offensive push-offs and hand-fighting while other teams seemingly get away with it?

The answer, according to head coach Aaron Glenn, is simple.

They have to earn it.

“There’s always calls that we look at that we want to bring to the League and get clarification on,” Glenn said. “‘Why wasn’t it called, what are the refs looking at?’ But you have to earn the right to get a lot of these calls for the most part, and we just have to continue playing.”

New York has gone through some questionable officiating over the last few games. The good teams, though, are able to move past some of the mental mistakes that are made on the field and come back to perform at a high level.

The Jets, meanwhile, are still learning how to win. Every questionable call could be the deciding factor in a win or loss simply due to that reality. It’s why questionable calls have become a topic of discussion at 0-4.

The best way for that to end in Gang Green’s favor is to win. If the franchise can make the turnaround that Glenn was hired to facilitate, it could change how their games are officiated.

Winning, as it so often does, cures all. Even penalties.