FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Sauce Gardner shared a special handshake and plenty of laughs with Aaron Rodgers during their two years as teammates with the New York Jets.
They'll square off as opponents Sunday when Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers come to MetLife Stadium for one of the juiciest storylines in Week 1 of the NFL season.
Just don't expect the Jets to add any extra spice this week when it comes to talking about their former quarterback.
“I don't know,” a smiling Gardner said Tuesday. “I’m just preparing like any other game.”
Truth is, it's not quite that simple.
After all, it's not often that one of the greatest passers in league history is cut by a team after two years of Super Bowl aspirations that fizzled miserably — helped in large part by a season-ending injury four snaps into his debut with his new squad — and then signs, at 41, with one of the league's most decorated franchises.
And to top it off, Rodgers will take the field for the first time with his new team against his former team.
“I don’t care who’s back there,” insisted edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, who's on track to return from a torn Achilles tendon in Week 2 last season. “I've got a job to do for this team. And whoever the quarterback is, I get paid to put him down. So whoever’s back there, it doesn’t matter.”
Nope, no extra juice.
Oh, but then there's this: Justin Fields — who ended up replacing Rodgers in New York — will face the team for which he started last season before hitting the bench after leading the Steelers to a 4-2 start.
“I mean, yeah, the storyline’s crazy,” a smiling Fields acknowledged. “I mean, that’s why the NFL set us up for Week 1, just for that. But, yeah, it’s cool. Cool to kind of see that. And it’s gonna be fun going up against these guys on Sunday.”
All the hype, though, is for outside the Jets' facility.
“It’s no storyline for me,” Fields said. “It’s ball for me. So, I’ll let you guys kind of handle the storylines, the news lines and stuff like that. In the locker room, we just keep it straight ball.”
Rodgers came to the Jets in 2023 with lots of hype and even greater expectations, as the Jets were labeled Super Bowl contenders. But a torn Achilles tendon sunk New York's season just as it started, and then Rodgers and the Jets struggled to a 5-12 finish last year that ended up costing coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas their jobs.
Enter new coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey, and a clean slate for the franchise. That meant the difficult decision by the new regime to move on from Rodgers in the offseason — followed by Rodgers publicly criticizing the way the team handled his departure.
Glenn, who has preached about the Jets focusing on the present and their own task at hand, bristled a bit when asked what he saw of Rodgers last season as the team was deciding the quarterback's future.
“That’s been gone,” Glenn said. “I’m not going to answer questions about guys that aren’t here and what I saw. Right now, I’m looking at what our guys can do.”
He was then asked what he has seen on film while scouting Rodgers.
“Just like I said, I’m not going to sit here and answer questions on what I saw back then,” said Glenn, who'll make his debut as an NFL head coach. “It’s not relevant to right now.”
Glenn did call Rodgers “a future Hall of Famer” who is “going to cause problems no matter what” when he takes the field. Glenn game-planned against him plenty when he was in Detroit as a defensive coordinator and as an assistant in New Orleans before that.
“He’s always been someone that really understands what the coordinator is thinking,” he said. “You can tell he does a lot of film study. Mentally, that never goes away. Physically, we all start to wane at some point as we get older, but I know at that position, when mentally you are on point, man, he makes it a challenge.
"On tape, you will continue to see that. When he was here, you see that.”
Gardner, whose handshake with Rodgers during which they pretend to smoke went viral, said it was “a great experience” learning on the practice field from a player with his experience. He also wouldn't be surprised if Rodgers used his departure from the Jets as a little bit of added fuel Sunday.
“I mean, you know, we are human,” Gardner said. “We use a lot of things as motivation and there’s things every day I use for motivation. I’m sure I could say the same thing. I’m sure there are guys in this locker room that can say the exact same thing, so, you know, that’s just how I feel about that.”
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