Sauce Gardner gives Garrett Wilson ultimate respect after bold claim

When the New York Jets traded away Sauce Gardner at last November's trade deadline, there were no hard feelings about the circumstances surrounding his surprising exit.

The Jets were 1-7, one of the worst teams in the NFL, and had a bleak outlook hanging over their future with minimal draft assets to address those shortcomings.

After the Gardner and Quinnen Williams trades, New York was immediately positioned to overhaul their team, thanks to the three first-round picks and one second-rounder received in both trades. The Jets' No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft was going to be missed, but the reasoning behind the trade made sense.

Almost five months later, there's no hard feelings between Jets fans and Gardner, and a lot of them likely still will root for his individual success, especially with the way he treats his old team.

Sauce Gardner praises Jets' Garrett Wilson as one of the best WRs

In an interview with ESPN's Kevin Clark, Gardner paid homage to his former Jets teammate and draft classmate Garrett Wilson, calling him the hardest wide receiver in the NFL to cover.

"It was hard for people to see all that he can do because...he don't always get the same treatment. Like, he's not just getting put on the island all of the time. But he's very decisive...it's hard to predict what he's going to do. So you just got to react. And sometimes by the time it's time to react, it's too late."

Sauce Gardner

If anyone knows what it's like to try and cover Wilson, it's Gardner. The two first-round draft picks faced off against each other countless times over their three and a half years together at Jets practices. As former head coach Robert Saleh used to say, "iron sharpens iron."

It's awesome to see Gardner still paying respect to his former Jets teammate, proving that there truly is no ill will between himself and the franchise.

Since the trade, he's even shouted out head coach Aaron Glenn for being fully transparent about the whole ordeal, keeping him in the loop right before the trade with the Indianapolis Colts was finalized.

As previously mentioned, fans will likely root for Gardner's continued success as a player. As for the Colts, hopefully, they can provide the Jets with a quality draft pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.