Jets' Sauce Gardner Talks Aaron Rodgers, Super Bowl Hopes and More in B/R Interview

Most New York Jets players and fans likely immediately started celebrating when they found out their team finally landed Aaron Rodgers in a trade.

It took Sauce Gardner a minute to join them.

"I was in a barber shop, and my barber taps me and goes 'there it is right there,'" the star cornerback told Bleacher Report. "I don't know why, but when I first looked up I thought I saw my name. I thought I was being traded. So my heart dropped. But then I was cool when I saw it. It was great. When I saw it say 'Jets finalize trade for Packers' Aaron Rodgers,' that was just a great feeling."

Including Gardner in the trade wouldn't have felt right after he was such a public part of New York's recruitment of the future Hall of Fame quarterback.

He may have ruffled some feathers last season when he celebrated a road win against the Green Bay Packers by running around Lambeau Field with the team's signature cheesehead, but he posted a YouTube video with Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall where they burned it in an effort to manifest Rodgers coming to New York:

That was part of a lengthy process where both the Jets and Packers were seemingly stuck in a back-and-forth after Rodgers appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and said he intended to continue his career and play for the AFC East team following an offseason darkness retreat.

It was an unusual situation where neither side had significant leverage.

On the one hand, it was clear Rodgers wasn't going to play for the Packers again, and they finally had an opportunity to see if Jordan Love could be the franchise quarterback. On the other hand, the Jets were likely a quarterback away from being a true contender with a strong defense and talented group of skill players, and they had some of their most prominent players publicly pushing for him.

"Not really," Gardner said when asked if he was worried when more than a month passed between Rodgers' comments about wanting to play for the Jets and the actual trade.

"I feel like my main focus was to show him that we wanted him to be a New York Jet. That's why I made that video burning the cheesehead and everything with some credible guys like Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson. That was our main focus to just show him that we want him to be a Jet because we know we can do something special."

Rodgers is not the only reason the Jets can do something special.

New York's defense finished last season fourth in the league in yards and points allowed per game in large part because Gardner wasted no time establishing himself as one of the NFL's best cornerbacks.

Expectations were high when the Jets selected him with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft after he helped the Cincinnati Bearcats become the first Group of Five team to make the College Football Playoff, but he still managed to surpass them.

He was the Defensive Rookie of the Year, a Pro Bowler and a First Team All-Pro behind 75 tackles, an NFL-best 20 pass breakups and two interceptions. There was discussion he was arguably the best cornerback in the entire NFL by the middle of his rookie season, and he never backed down from the challenge of defending No. 1 options if lined up across him.

But being the best doesn't stop with just one breakout season.

"I always wanted to be the best," Gardner said. "That's always the goal. People say I was the best in that year, but I just had a phenomenal season that year. It's all about what you can do next year and what you can do the year after that. So I just have to be consistent, that's the main thing. So I don't get too caught up in what I did last year because I have a huge challenge coming up this year as well."

Part of that huge challenge in 2023 will be going up against some of the top wide receivers in the league.

New York faces their own AFC East division, the AFC West and NFC East during the upcoming campaign, meaning Gardner will line up across from the likes of Stefon Diggs, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Davante Adams, Keenan Allen, Terry McLaurin, CeeDee Lamb and A.J. Brown with quarterbacks such as Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Justin Herbert throwing the ball.

"All of them," he said when asked which matchup he is most looking forward to this season. "In order for me to be the best, I've got to go against the best. So all of them."

There will be even higher expectations in place during his second season since he has a year of NFL experience under his belt and fully understands what it takes to find individual success at this level.

The bright spotlight will be dialed up even more with the addition of Rodgers and legitimate playoff hopes, and Gardner is ready to embrace it all.

"I just want to be able to dominate," he said. "I want to be an even bigger voice and even better leader as someone my teammates can depend on for anything on and off the field. It's more than just me being an athlete on the field, it's me being an even better leader with the little things and bringing my teammates with me."

When he isn't leading by example on the field, he is honing his Call of Duty skills off it.

He isn't just a casual player, either. He set a record while winning a competition against his fellow incoming rookies and other players at the draft last year and returned to defend his crown against a whole new group of competitors around the draft this year.

Fernando Leon/Getty Images for Call of Duty

Yet Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Darian Kinnard got the best of him this time around.

"There's somebody who got one above me," Gardner said. "I feel like I'm going to let him have it, let him win a belt this year. I won my belt already last year. The plan was for me to defend it. I know last year when I was a rookie it felt good to win that belt, so I'm sure he'll feel good as well."

Besides, Gardner is more focused on another title at this point.

"Super Bowl," he said when discussing what would be considered a successful season in New York. "That's the plan. If everybody truly believes that, we just have to be able to do the things that allow that to happen. Starting with the end goal, that's the main thing."

That would be quite the way to break a playoff drought that dates back to the 2010 campaign.