New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn has set the bar high for Sauce Gardner heading into 2025. He wants perfection.
“When I asked him [Glenn], coach [Steve] Wilks, like what they want out of me? It’s like they want me to have this standard that I already have and keep it there week in and week out; that’s perfection. Basically, what they’re telling me is they want me to be perfect, and that’s what I want,” Gardner explained on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“I always want to be perfect, even though there is no such thing as perfect people, I want to be perfect. That is what I need. I have had a lot of early success in the league and I never want to get complacent. Mr. [Woody] Johnson bringing a new regime in, that is going to push me even more. I don’t know if anyone can push me more than I push myself, but for them to come in here and like also push me and have this new standard that I haven’t even reached for me is just a blessing for sure,” Gardner told Pat McAfee.
#Jets HC Aaron Glenn is setting the bar high for Sauce Gardner in 2025: ‘perfection.’
Gardner shared details of that conversation & his goals for next season:
LINK: https://t.co/wjr92gqMcD pic.twitter.com/PiHSLLlREh
— Paul Andrew Esden Jr (@BoyGreen25) July 5, 2025
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The Key to Unlocking a New Level out of Sauce Gardner
“When new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks met Gardner for the first time at the beginning of the offseason, he challenged the star cornerback to raise his game to a new level. Perhaps he noticed some slippage last season after a historic start to his career. Or maybe he was just pushing buttons, which coaches do even with their best players,” ESPN’s Rich Cimini explained.
Gardner was named a first-team All-Pro in each of his first two seasons in the NFL. He is the first cornerback since the merger back in 1970 to accomplish that feat.
In 2024, Gardner didn’t keep his All-Pro streak alive, having a down year compared to his first two seasons.
“He’s very gifted, and I told him, ‘Sometimes your greatest strength is your greatest weakness,’” defensive coordinator Steve Wilks said about Gardner via Cimini. “He’s a guy that sometimes at 85%, he’s still better than everybody around him. So his thing is — and I told him, ‘compete against yourself.’ That’s where he has to get better, which he will.”
A New DBU Summit on the Horizon?
Across the NFL, players have begun to organize events for their positional groups during the offseason.
Tight End University and Sack Summit already exist, but could a Defensive Back University be on the horizon?
“I definitely been wanting to be a part of something like that. I know guys like Quandre Diggs and Darius Slay, they have hit me up about it. Richard Sherman said something to me about it. I have always wanted to do something like that because me personally I’m not gonna say cornerback is the most needed position because obviously you need a quarterback, you need pretty good quarterback play, but I do think and I’m not being biased, I do think cornerback is the hardest position to play,” cornerback Sauce Gardner said on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“Ain’t nothing wrong with giving game to the other guys around you. The way I think is it’s bigger than just me,” Gardner added.
Gardner, at just the age of 24, is already considered one of, if not the best, at his position.
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