Jets' Gardner claps back at Hardman: 'Never earned his stripes'

New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner called out Mecole Hardman for the receiver's recent criticism of the AFC East team.

"If you really know what it takes to win, you're going make sure you let the team know," Gardner recently said of Hardman, according to ESPN's Rich Cimini.

He added: "The reason he couldn't do that is because he never earned his stripes. He came to the facility and thought he had it made for him.

"If you know what it takes to win, you're not going to go to practice and drop hella punts and then have excuses as to why you're dropping them. You're not going to go into a special teams meeting and get cussed out by the special teams coordinator."

After spending his first four NFL seasons with the Chiefs and winning a pair of Super Bowl titles with Kansas City, Hardman signed with the Jets during the 2023 offseason. However, the speedster failed to make an impact on a New York offense that mostly struggled without injured quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Hardman, who was traded back to the Chiefs midway through the 2023 campaign and lifted another Lombardi Trophy with K.C., recently said that the Jets' offense didn't have a "standard."

"Everybody do what they want to do," he added.

Gardner said Hardman's comments regarding the Jets are unfair.

"You can't really discredit the Jets, especially him individually," Gardner said. "They sent you back to a contender team. They sent you back to the Chiefs, and you won the Super Bowl. I feel like that's ungrateful. I feel like he shouldn't have gone on there, talking about the Jets, because he could've just taken the high road. You just won the Super Bowl, and you had the game-winning catch."

It was recently reported that multiple New York players suspect that Hardman leaked the team's offensive game plan before games against the Philadelphia Eagles and Chiefs last season. Hardman has strongly denied that idea.

Hardman caught only one touchdown in his return to the Chiefs - a three-yard score to walk off the San Francisco 49ers in a 25-22 overtime victory in Super Bowl LVIII.

The 26-year-old is a free agent in 2024.