Sauce Gardner used to scroll through social media and grow frustrated with what he saw.
Criticism over his play. Memes about mistakes. Hot takes about his ability.
Gardner believes everything he does — both good and bad — is blown out of proportion given his stature as a star on the field and bravado off the field. Now, though, he’s learned to welcome the discourse.
“Right now, I love it,” Gardner said after Jets practice Thursday. “I love how everything that I do is under a microscope. I was just having a conversation with somebody, [nickelback Michael] Carter, the other day and I was just like, ‘Yeah bro, I set the bar so high for myself where I’m really competing with myself now.’ Everything that I do is under a microscope and I love that. I love challenges, I love everything about that.
“It kind of took me a little time to have that mentality but I embrace it now a lot and I love it.”
By his own standards, Gardner had a down season last year. After being named to the All-Pro First Team each of his first two seasons in the league, Gardner did not earn a spot on any All-Pro team last year.
Quarterbacks owned an 86.9 passer rating when targeting Gardner, up from 62.7 and 80.5 his first two seasons, respectively. He had just nine pass breakups, down from 20 and 11 his first two seasons.
He earned a 70.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, down from 87.9 and 88.6 his first two years.
That only increased the negativity Gardner saw, read and heard when others talked about him. He now feels much better equipped to handle all of it.
It is a mindset he has newly adopted this year, entering his fourth season in the league. Signing a four-year, $120.4 million extension this offseason will only bring more attention — and expectations — onto Gardner.
“This year [the mentality] was all the way,” Gardner said. “Last year I would see [the criticism] and I would be like, ‘Bro, what?’ and I then would keep going. But now it’s not even a, ‘Bro, what?’ I expect people to blow everything [out of proportion], make things more than what they are. I don’t even really acknowledge it now. First and second year, I would be sitting there and looking like, ‘Yo, seriously?’ Then it kind of just faded away. And now it’s not even a factor.”
The change in Gardner’s sentiment is part of what new head coach Aaron Glenn has been preaching to his team — emotional maturity in the face of outside noise.
“Something about just being an athlete, in general, is sometimes people have so many opinions about what you should do about this game and have no clue what it’s about, and sometimes players can hear that noise and don’t realize, man, listen, you’re going to always hear that,” Glenn said. “That’s just the nature of it. You’re going to get criticized. People have expectations, and that’s OK, but you can’t have people have higher expectations of you than you have for yourself.
“I think it’s one thing that our guys are really starting to latch on to and understand. Every day, I want to make sure I preach that to the guys because this game is hard, and it’s not always going to be pretty, but at the end, you have to make sure you keep pushing, keep pushing, and we’ll be just fine.”
For Gardner, that “pushing” is now coming internally — not from what is said about him.
“I always got a chip on my shoulder,” Gardner said. “That’s just what it is with me.”
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