Sauce Gardner goes viral for his comments about rival QB

Aug 12, 2022; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner (1) against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner was very, very careful with some of his commentary about a rival quarterback on Wednesday.

Gardner was asked for his thoughts on New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones after the Jets and Giants held a joint practice on Wednesday. Gardner’s response went viral — not for what he said, but in the extremely careful tone he took when discussing Jones.

Sauce Gardner was asked for his opinion of Daniel Jones and his takeaways from practicing against him today: pic.twitter.com/g0tilhnsRZ

— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) August 21, 2024

“Uh, he’s a good quarterback,” Gardner said cautiously. “I mean, a competitor. It was very competitive. It was great. I had fun out there today. I don’t really know what to say.”

The roughly ten seconds of silence before Gardner managed to praise Jones’ competitiveness was taken by many as an attempt on Gardner’s part to be polite and avoid saying anything too critical about the much-maligned Giants quarterback. Gardner, for his part, denied any disrespect — or any attempts at avoiding disrespect — by claiming that he was distracted by something in the middle of his answer.

I said "he's a good quarterback", I just got a lil distracted with something mid interview😂 chilllllllll

— SAUCE GARDNER (@iamSauceGardner) August 21, 2024

For those who had already made up their minds about Gardner’s intentions, the excuse probably will not fly. After all, we already know Gardner will freely offer praise to opposing quarterbacks when he thinks it’s justified.

Jones is signed to a rather infamous four-year, $160 million deal with the Giants, and he has yet to really live up to it. His preseason debut this year did not offer much reason for optimism, either.