{"id":123290,"date":"2025-06-12T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/123290\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T05:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T05:56:10","slug":"jets-sauce-gardner-gets-strong-praise-from-veteran-coaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/123290\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets’ Sauce Gardner Gets Strong Praise From Veteran Coaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jets’ Sauce Gardner Gets Strong Praise From Veteran Coaches<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — When he is at the top of his game, New York Jets All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner is the best in the league.<\/p>\n

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The former fourth overall pick was the first defensive back in NFL history to be named a first-team All-Pro in his first two seasons. After a strong start to his career, though, Gardner struggled last season.<\/p>\n

He was still a Pro Bowl player but was penalized more for his aggressive style and struggled to tackle throughout the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

Under a new coaching staff, Gardner’s expectations are back to where they were after 2023.<\/p>\n

Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks believes he can get the most out of their new star.<\/p>\n

“It’s so many things that I feel like Sauce can do,” Wilks said. “Again, the word consistent.\u00a0He’s been a Pro Bowl player…How consistent can he be to take it to another level?<\/p>\n

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“And that’s one of the things that I challenged him on day one when we had our conversation.”<\/p>\n

It’s important to remember that Gardner’s worse season was still pretty damn good compared to other players in his position.<\/p>\n

If he can reduce the penalties and improve his tackling, Gardner should be expected to return to his All-Pro status. According to Wilks, that is precisely what the team expects out of him.<\/p>\n

And what Gardner expects out of himself.<\/p>\n

Few cornerbacks in the NFL have the kind of frame that Gardner is working with. Wilks commented about that on Wednesday as part of why consistency is such a focus for the All-Pro this year.<\/p>\n

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If Gardner can return to that status in 2023, the Jets’ defense will continue to be one of the best in football.<\/p>\n

Related: Jets Emphasize Key Part of Mandatory Minicamp<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Jets Continue To Be Pleased With First-Round Pick<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 12, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jets’ Sauce Gardner Gets Strong Praise From Veteran Coaches originally appeared on Athlon Sports. FLORHAM PARK, N.J. —…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,7536,22352],"class_list":{"0":"post-123290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-jets","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkjets","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sauce-gardner","16":"tag-steve-wilks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114668856000147362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}