New York Jets star cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner generated headlines when he recently took to X to campaign for his club to pursue Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley and/or Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals this offseason.
Former Jets quarterback, one-time Most Valuable Player and current CBS Sports NFL analyst Boomer Esiason wasn’t a huge fan of Gardner’s social media activities.
“You’re basically, as a defensive back, saying, ‘we need more wide receivers,'” Esiason explained during Wednesday’s edition of the WFAN “Boomer and Gio” program, as shared by Ryan Chichester of Audacy. “What if a wide receiver said, ‘We need more defensive backs.’ It doesn’t go over well with your teammates, people that may be wearing the same uniform. It just creates unnecessary drama.”
It’s understandable Gardner would want to see the Jets bolster their offense following a second straight campaign of the defense being the stronger of the team’s two units.
Per ESPN stats, the Jets finished this past regular season ranked 31st in the NFL with an average of 268.6 offensive yards per game and 29th with an average of 15.8 points scored per contest.
With that said, this isn’t the first time that Gardner and other Gang Green players seemingly have thrown teammates under the bus via social media.
As Liz Roscher noted for Yahoo Sports, Gardner and defensive end John Franklin-Myers both took to the platform formerly known as Twitter in November 2022 to insist they “accidentally” liked tweets that were critical of Jets quarterback Zach Wilson at that time.
Per Chichester, Gregg Giannotti, Esiason’s WFAN partner, said this past May that it felt “like the Jets lead the league in Twitter dumbness.”
Jets starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers raised eyebrows when he said earlier this month that “the bull—- that has nothing to do with winning has to get out of the (team’s) building.”
It remains to be learned if Rodgers will speak with his teammates about how certain online actions can impact the chemistry of a squad even during the offseason.
