For the record, Sauce Gardner called Daniel Jones a “good quarterback.”
The New York Jets cornerback was mostly at a loss for words, however, when asked to describe the New York Giants quarterback following Wednesday’s joint practice.
Gardner, a two-time All-Pro, was asked for his opinion or takeaway on Jones, the Giants’ often-scrutinized signal-caller. The often-loquacious Gardner struggled for answers far more than he ever has covering top-flight wide receivers.
"Uh, he’s a, he's a good quarterback, you feel me?” Gardner said. “I thought I was about to pick him off today. I had a little cloud rep, he had looked at the last minute to try to throw the checkdown to . I thought I had the pick, but he kept it. Um, I mean ... Man... The competitive period, it was very competitive, man. It was great. I had fun out there today, you know. Um... I don't really know what to say."
Video quickly circulated of Gardner seemingly doing his best not to offer up any headline-making comments regarding Jones.
The 23-year-old quickly took to social media to plead his case.
“I said ‘he’s a good quarterback,’ I just got a lil distracted with something mid interview,” he wrote. “chilllllllll.”
He then followed with, “so this is how memes are created” captioning a video of a portion of the interview in which he nodded his head and searched for words that he never found.
Jones was the No. 6 overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, a then-general manager Dave Gettleman selection that was met with raised eyebrows at the time as many projected the Duke product to go lower. Jones took over for Eli Manning and had some early highlights before finishing his rookie season with a 3-9 starting tally.
Through parts of five seasons, Jones has produced a 22-36-1 record as a starter, thrown for more than 20 touchdowns in a season just once (his first) and struggled to garner the support of the fanbase. His best season was 2022, when he threw for 15 touchdowns, rushed for seven and turned in a career-best 3,205 passing yards. It helped the Giants to the only playoff berth in his career, which preceded a wild-card win. That led to a four-year, $160 million extension in the spring of 2023. What followed was a disastrous 2023 season in which the Giants went 6-11 and Jones struggled in six games before he was lost for the season to an ACL tear.
Jones’ return to action came in Week 2 of the preseason, a game in which threw two interceptions.
So, it hasn’t been a good run as of late for Danny Dimes.
In fairness to Jones, he’s coming off a torn ACL and the surroundings for much of his Big Blue tenure -- whether it be a revolving door of coaches, subpar offensive line play or a lack of receiving options -- have hardly been ideal.
Regardless, Wednesday’s viral events certainly won’t aid his perception in Gotham.
In fairness to Gardner, one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL did lead off his answer with a compliment.
Nothing to see here three days out from the Snoopy Bowl.