‘Showman’ Sauce Gardner brings much-needed swagger to New York Jets’ protection – New York Jets Weblog

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The play was described to Perry Eliano over the cellphone, how former star pupil Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner sprinted alongside teammate D.J. Reed on a 100-yard interception return final weekend in a New York Jets follow. With about 3,000 spectators cheering, Gardner celebrated Reed’s landing with — brace your self — a again flip.

Punch up the Allen Iverson sound: We’re speaking about follow, not a sport.

Eliano chuckled when he heard about Gardner’s theatrics.

“He is very a lot a showman,” mentioned Eliano, the College of Cincinnati cornerbacks coach in 2020 and 2021. “We all the time used to say, ‘Observe reps change into sport actuality,’ so do not be stunned in case you see that very same man when the lights are actually on.”

For a success-starved franchise desperately in want of swagger, Gardner — the No. 4 general choose within the 2022 NFL draft — may very well be the particular sauce. Whereas the Jets have a handful of seasoned veterans and some promising younger gamers on protection, they do not have a real identification. Reality be advised, they have not had one because the Rex Ryan days, circa 2009.

The previous Bearcats All-American is not near being a completed product, however he has the character, nickname and expertise to vary that. Former All-Professional security Jamal Adams might’ve been that man for the Jets, however he was traded earlier than the 2020 season. Since then, the Jets are thirty first in factors allowed. Now they’re relying on veteran free brokers and the Gardner-led draft class to steer a defensive revival.

“He is bought juice, he is bought swag and he is bought that infectious character that individuals gravitate to,” mentioned Eliano, now on the Ohio State employees. “He is simply bought that aura about him. Some guys simply have that It.”

Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich would not imagine his unit was shy on confidence final season, rapidly including he is all the time keen so as to add to the availability. As he defined with a smile, “It’s like Coke is de facto good, however Coke with just a little one thing in it’s higher. what I’m saying?”

And he wasn’t speaking a few lemon.

In 2021, the Jets’ protection was Coke Zero, ending thirty second within the two main statistical classes — yards and factors allowed. Within the offseason, they upgraded the secondary, drafting Gardner and including Reed and security Jordan Whitehead in free company. That is an $80 million renovation to a unit that made a surprisingly low variety of interceptions — 5.

Reed and Gardner have the potential to change into their finest cornerback tandem since Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie greater than a decade in the past. Reed mentioned he is impressed with Gardner’s “eagerness to study.” Gamers and coaches say he asks a variety of questions, as he did in faculty. As Eliano famous, Gardner by no means had a “too cool for varsity” angle.

He is all the time one of many first gamers on the follow discipline day-after-day; Sauce would not do fashionably late. On the primary day of coaching camp, he and quarterback Zach Wilson had been the primary on the sector, speaking by the follow script.

“With rookies, you sort of have to speak to them just a little extra and get on them,” Reed mentioned. “I do not actually need to say a lot to Sauce as a result of he is a professional.”

At Cincinnati, Gardner realized “you need to be a professional earlier than you are a professional” — the mantra Eliano preached to his gamers. He gave them professional tips about all the things from watch movie to costume. It molded Gardner into who he’s. Beneath that youthful exuberance is a serious-minded athlete who embraces teaching. Although all of it, his confidence by no means appears to waver.

“I am identical to a good-luck allure,” Gardner mentioned. “Each staff I find yourself on, there’s all the time one thing distinctive about it. This program jogs my memory of Cincinnati quite a bit. I feel this yr we’ll make an enormous change.”

The Bearcats averaged 11 wins per season throughout Gardner’s three-year profession. Within the three years earlier than his arrival, the common was six. He made one of the memorable performs of the 2021 season. In opposition to Central Florida, a run to his facet broke free for a giant acquire. Gardner by no means gave up on the play, sprinting 50 yards to chase down the ball provider for a touchdown-saving deal with.

This is the loopy half: Cincinnati was forward, 35-0.

“A extremely, actually cool second,” Eliano mentioned.

Jets assistant defensive position coach Greg Scruggs, a former Bearcats assistant, mentioned he will get goose bumps simply fascinated with that play. Nobody within the group is aware of Gardner higher than Scruggs, who labored within the faculty’s player-development division throughout his recruitment. His background with Gardner was useful throughout the pre-draft course of, as he was in a position to share intel with the scouting division.

Gardner arrived on the Cincinnati campus as an unheralded recruit, ignored by the Energy-5 faculties as a result of he was a pole-thin participant with restricted expertise at cornerback. He was a 5-foot-10, 140-pound large receiver at Detroit’s Martin Luther King Excessive Faculty earlier than switching to nook as a junior and sprouting to 6-foot-3.

This kinda previous however I am unable to wait to get my first D1 supply its trying good #StayHumble #BeGreat pic.twitter.com/zFe6DqjdKh

— SAUCE (@iamSauceGardner) May 28, 2016

“All people advised him he was too skinny, in order that put the chip on his shoulder,” Scruggs mentioned. “We took our shot, pondering he was a diamond within the tough.”

Shaggy dog story: As a freshman, Gardner needed to be referred to as “Sauce,” so he went on-line and adjusted his educational profile within the college’s laptop system, making “Sauce Gardner” his official faculty identify. The coaches had no thought till a routine assembly with the educational counselors. When a counselor talked about “Sauce Gardner” within the assembly, the coaches checked out one another, puzzled.

“All people goes, ‘Who? Sauce? Who’s Sauce? You imply Ahmad?'” recalled Scruggs, who nonetheless calls him Ahmad.

Gardner bought the nickname as a child in Detroit, when his youth coach known as him “A1 Sauce Candy Toes Gardner.” Ultimately, it was shortened to Sauce. That he demanded the nickname as a university freshman confirmed super self-confidence. When he got here off the bench in his fifth sport as a freshman and scored on an interception return to swing the sport, the Sauce Period was born.

“That swag you see, it is on a regular basis,” Scruggs mentioned. “That is who he’s. I believed it might die off in some unspecified time in the future, perhaps his freshman yr, however right here we’re, 4 years later, and it is the identical particular person.”

Defensive deal with Sheldon Rankins mentioned Gardner reminds him of his former New Orleans Saints teammate Marshon Lattimore, a Professional Bowl cornerback. The similarity: Supreme confidence.

“There is not a (receiver) who places concern in them,” Rankins mentioned. “That is the factor that jumps out.”

Gardner nonetheless hasn’t received a beginning job — he is alternating with incumbent Bryce Hall — nevertheless it’s solely a matter of time earlier than he prevails. He nonetheless hasn’t made a highlight-film play at follow, however that, too, is coming. For now, he has the again flip.

“I hadn’t completed a again flip since I used to be like 12 years previous,” he mentioned. “It appeared sort of unhealthy, nevertheless it was within the second.”

If Gardner performs to his potential, the fan base will flip for him.