Jets' Sauce Gardner owns sloppy tackling, vows to do better as he works through difficult third season

Sauce Gardner didn’t need anyone telling him that he had messed up. He already knew.

This isn’t about Gardner’s tackling mishap in last week’s loss to Arizona, when he held himself accountable for not wrapping up Cardinals tight end Trey McBride and letting him escape for a 17-yard gain on a crucial third down early in the game.

It had to do with Gardner going on X — formerly known as Twitter — and letting his frustration with  this Jets season and his own play get the better of him.

Gardner responded to two tweets that referenced the botched tackle, one by a fan/content creator and another by a reporter. Gardner later deleted them. He also had a direct message he sent to someone he claims he knows broadcast on the social media platform.

The Jets’ third-year cornerback held himself accountable for all of that, and he apologized publicly.

“Nobody came to me,” Gardner told Newsday. “I always realize certain stuff. I always look at stuff from both sides. There’s always two sides to a story. There’s always two perspectives. I always sit there, think about it. Thinking about that, [I was] like, ‘Oh, I was wrong.’

“It’s not one of those things that people got to come to me and force me to do stuff. They already know I already know better.”

It’s been a rough season for Gardner and the Jets (3-7). They’ve lost six of seven going into Sunday’s game against Indianapolis at MetLife Stadium, their last game before their bye week.

Gardner, by all metrics, hasn’t been as dominant and effective as he was in his first two NFL seasons, when he twice was a first-team All-Pro selection and made two Pro Bowls.

“I always feel like I can be better,” Gardner said.

Penalties, missed tackles and no takeaways have been the most glaring things for Gardner this season. His three holding penalties and two pass interference flags match the totals of his first two years combined.

According to Pro Football Reference, Gardner has allowed 412 receiving yards through 10 games, which is 80 more than all of last season by the website’s calculations. Pro Football Focus has Gardner graded at 64.8. His grades were 87.9 as a rookie and 88.6 last season. Gardner hasn’t had an interception in 34 consecutive games.

“I feel like one of the things that’s different is that I need to be better at is my tackling,” he said. “Coverage is not the problem. I got some missed tackles that I’ve got to clean up. As a whole, we’re 3-7. Of course it’s been rough from that aspect.”

Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich acknowledged that Gardner needs to play better, but he said each member of the team — including the coaches — has to raise his game and hold himself more accountable.

“We all need to improve in that way,” Ulbrich said. “He needs to and he wants to play better. He’s working his butt off to get that accomplished. Some of the lack of interceptions are lack of ops from the standpoint of he’s not targeted a ton. But he is part of all of us in the building that need to do a better job.”

Gardner has seven games to reestablish himself as a shutdown cornerback. He was reminded that he needs to shut down social media, too.

The Jets’ struggles and Gardner’s dip in play have led to negativity on his timeline. After everything that happened earlier this week, he deleted the app for the second time this season. 

Gardner had reinstalled it because he said there was a direct message he wanted to read and respond to, but then he “went down a little rabbit hole” because of things he saw.

“That's on me,” he said. “Me being a leader of the team, of the defense, I can't be on social media with my emotions, saying certain stuff. I know better. My coaches know that I know better. My teammates know that I know better. And I just got to be better.

“My home feed on Twitter is just negative,” he added. “I forgot to go look at the DM that I was supposed to go on there for because what I [was] seeing, so I got a little distracted. I got to be better.”

 With so many people piling on the Jets when so much more was expected of them this season, one of Ulbrich’s messages to the team this past week was to stay off social media.

Ulbrich urged the players to get reconnected to why they play football and focus on being the best they can be for their teammates.

“If you’re trying to please the outside world, that will never happen,” he said.

Aaron Rodgers wasn’t speaking about Gardner in particular, but he referenced the importance of insulating yourself during good and bad times. The Jets were anointed Super Bowl contenders before accomplishing anything. Now they’re being pounded for underachieving.

“You start going down that path where you’re interacting on social media with fans or any of you [media] guys, it doesn’t always end the right way,” Rodgers said. “I think that’s a good reminder for all of us: When you’re riding high, you can’t be reading it and loving that serotonin that’s coming from these positive things they’re saying about you. When they’re tearing you down, you can’t either. It’s part of the lessons of the season so far.”

One of many.

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.