Sauce Gardner is one of the most fly and flashy players in the league, and his play merits this reputation.
But, according to a former All-Pro, the second-year corner is only a product of the market and city that drafted him in the first place.
When you look at the list of defenders who made All-Pro in their rookie year you don’t see too many names in recent history. As a matter of fact, you only see Jets’ cornerback Sauce Gardner, and then if you scroll down the list you’ll find Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott in 1981 as the last to do it since Gardner.
Is Sauce Gardner Best NFL Cornerback?
This award, along with his stellar play and the success of the Jets’ defense last season, got Sauce on ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler’s list of best corners in the league.
The list that was voted on by various voices around the league and landed Gardner in second place, behind Denver’s Patrick Surtain II.
This ranking prompted a comment from former All-Pro corner Asante Samuel.
The former Falcon and Eagle took a shot at Gardner, claiming that he only ranked this high on the list because he’s at the forefront of the New York media’s attention.
Asante Samuel Says Sauce Is All NY Hype, Takes Shots At Revis Island
“The New York media will take your career to another level,” Samuel tweeted in response to this list.
Before Gardner even had a chance to defend himself, his big brother caught a stray as well. While on the topic of the New York media hyping up their players, Samuel also claimed that they did the same thing for Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis.
When Sauce Gardner finally entered the chat he tried to explain to Samuel that this list was a product of coaches, players, and other staff in the poll. Gardner also advised Samuel that before he jumped to social media to trash talk him, he should have messaged him privately like “all the other OGs do,” and then Revis tapped in to address Samuel.
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Revis’ argument was that he doesn’t need statistics to show how good he was because he is a Hall of Famer and his team planned to exploit his susceptibility to double moves against receivers when facing the Falcons.
The hilarious story that Revis recounted was that they not only figured Samuel out on film, but that in practice they referred to Samuel as “DOUBLE MOVE KING”
Meaning he always was susceptible to getting toasted on that move.
From there the beef snowballed into Gardner’s teammate, cornerback DJ Reed, defending Gardner as well, before another former Eagle, safety CJ Gardner-Johnson stepped in to combat Reed, proposing that Gardner only had such a successful season because he wasn’t guarding the WR1 for the opposing teams.
While the different players went at it on Twitter, it took another Eagle, Darius Slay, to try to end the beef, asking that everyone try to make peace.
Darius Slay Ends Cornerback Twitter Wars
It looks like the plea for peace worked, as Darius Slay announced on Twitter that they will be hosting a defensive backs camp and that he wants everyone there.
The Jets and CJ Gardner-Johnson’s Lions don’t play this year, but the Eagles and Jets will meet on Oct. 15.
