Sauce Gardner’s pathetic postgame excuse is not what the Jets need

The New York Jets have wholly underperformed as a football team through the first four weeks of the season. That much was on display in the team's 27-21 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football in a game that wasn't as close as the final score would suggest.

Star cornerback Sauce Gardner has been a part of this underperforming football team. The new highest-paid cornerback in the NFL has played below his standard through the first quarter of the season, and that continued on Monday night.

Gardner allowed a touchdown to the recently unretired Darren Waller and was penalized for a defensive pass interference call in the first half. But rather than take accountability for his mistakes, Gardner shifted blame to the officials when speaking to reporters after the game.

The All-Pro cornerback insisted that referees single him out because he plays for a losing team. He argued that he isn’t officiated fairly, suggesting the lack of Jets victories plays a direct role in his reputation among officials.

It was a tone-deaf remark from a supposed team leader who, rather than owning up to an obvious defensive pass interference, chose to pin his mistake on the Jets’ losing ways.

"I’m personally frustrated. 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. Obviously that’s not WHY I want to win. I want to win because I don’t like losing."

Sauce Gardner

Sauce Gardner's tone-deaf comments will not go over well with the Jets coaches

When a player of Gardner’s stature points fingers everywhere but himself, it sets the wrong tone for a team already desperate to establish accountability under a new head coach.

Fans and teammates alike expect more from one of the franchise’s cornerstones, and instead, they were left with a quote that only deepened the frustration of another primetime loss to a division rival.

Now, Gardner's comments have some credibility. The Jets were victimized by some egregiously bad one-sided officiating in Monday night's loss. From Garrett Wilson's phantom offensive pass interference to multiple missed personal fouls against Miami, the Jets had every right to feel frustrated with the officiating crew.

But using that frustration as a shield to deflect from an obvious penalty of his own is where Gardner went wrong. Instead of strengthening his case, his excuse only made him look petty.

Gardner made it about himself and used his own team's struggles to excuse what has become an increasingly troublesome trend in his game. No cornerback in the NFL has been called for more holding penalties since the start of the 2024 season than Gardner.

The Jets made Gardner the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history this summer. It was a well-deserved honor for a player who, despite a down year by his standards in 2024, remained among the league's elite defensive stars.

But the Sauce Gardner the Jets have gotten in 2025 has been worse than the 2024 version. His 30.2 Pro Football Focus coverage grade in Week 3 was far and away the lowest single-game grade of his NFL career.

The Jets need more from their star cornerback, and they can’t have him deflecting blame onto both the officials and his team’s losing. Gardner needs to take responsibility for his own mistakes if he wants to be the leader this team desperately needs.

This was weak, and it's safe to say head coach Aaron Glenn won't be particularly happy about it.

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