Sauce Gardner is smiling once more.
The Jets cornerback says he’s having enjoyable on the sphere once more after making an attempt to do an excessive amount of earlier this season.
Gardner has bounced again from some shaky video games to play his finest soccer in his previous two video games.
“My mental wasn’t all the way there for whatever reason. It just wasn’t there. That was it,” Gardner instructed The Publish on Wednesday. “I wasn’t having as much fun. I was out there playing like I’ve got to make every single play. I’ve got to make plays for other people. I was playing like I can’t make mistakes. The way that I am, I’m somebody who’s always smiling and happy. I play my best when I’m smiling and I’m happy, because I’m having fun and I’m always being positive. I wasn’t doing that at all.”
Gardner drew little or no criticism in his first two years, and he was named first-team All-Professional in every of these seasons.
However this yr he has come underneath hearth for missed tackles and penalties, and never taking part in in addition to he had in these first two seasons.
The 24-year-old was affected by what he noticed on social media, finally deleting his X account to attempt to escape the negativity.
However Gardner stated he was his personal harshest critic after he made errors.
“Anytime I see something about me missing a tackle or something like that, I’m really staying up at night myself already no matter if somebody says something or not,” Gardner stated. “That’s just how I am. I want to make every single play. You could say that you’re going to make mistakes, but that’s just not my thought process. If somebody gets the ball on me, I’ll be up at night for a while before I can go to sleep.”
Gardner has not needed to fear about sleepless nights recently.
He has performed his finest soccer in his previous two video games towards the Seahawks and Jaguars (he missed the sport towards the Dolphins with a hamstring damage).
In these two video games, Gardner had no missed tackles after lacking 10 earlier this season.
Towards the Seahawks, he matched up with DK Metcalf for a lot of the day and gave up two receptions for 28 yards on 5 targets.
Final week in Jacksonville, he allowed only one reception for 9 yards on six targets, although he was known as for 2 penalties.
He intercepted Mac Jones to finish the sport, Gardner’s first interception in two years.
“These past two games have been the best two games of the season in my opinion for him,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich stated. “I’ve just seen a rejuvenated spirit and focus, and it’s the Sauce that we all love, as far as the way he’s been preparing, and it’s resulted in two really [good] back-to-back games, so just got to keep it going.”
Gardner stated his head started to clear throughout the bye week final month.
Like everybody across the Jets, Gardner had excessive hopes for this season, and he’s now coping with his third shedding season in a row.
“That bye week let me clear my mind. I really needed to reflect on how I could be better,” Gardner stated. “Everything just happened so fast. Next thing you know, boom, we’re 2-and-something.”
The firing of coach Robert Saleh after 5 video games additionally had an have an effect on on Gardner, who’s shut with Saleh.
“It definitely affected me. Like I said, they helped change my life,” Gardner stated of Saleh and former GM Joe Douglas. “It also brought an added pressure. It got to the point where literally people felt like we have another head coach, we can’t make no mistakes. Everybody was just playing that way. That’s not good. When you have players that feel like I have to make this play and this play and this play, instead of let me just do my job because I believe in the man next to me to do his job, that’s a problem.”
Gardner just isn’t going to be an All-Professional this yr or obtain the accolades of his first two years, however he has three extra video games to point out what sort of participant he’s.
Anticipate to see him smiling.
