Sauce Gardner was smiling as he began explaining why he was waving goodbye to the Giants following the joint scrimmage after which he was undoubtedly giddy that he did not have to try to muzzle Aaron Rodgers-to-Garrett Wilson.
“I just seen it on Twitter like two minutes ago. We were just having fun out there. Two New York teams, we all know each other pretty much outside of football because we be seeing each other around and stuff like that. Just having fun with it. Just a little goodbye,” Gardner said with a smile. “Ain’t gonna sugarcoat it, that’s basically what that was, but … it was out of all love, nothing disrespectful like that.”
No disrespect taken.
“I mean, they can do that,” Malik Nabers said. “They won on the day. We beat ourselves today.”
Maybe on Saturday night against the Jets, Malik Nabers will get the last laugh on Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed and playfully wave goodnight to Jets fans following the final preseason game at MetLife Stadium. Perhaps he won’t have to hear Jets fans chanting “Garr-ett Wil-son, Garr-ett Wil-son” on a far field the way he did on Wednesday.
If I’m Brian Daboll, so obsessed with a nuclear passing game now, I play Jones, so very much in need of live game action following his ACL rehab, and Nabers for a quarter or so in the preseason finale.
Put me in, Coach:
“It’s another opportunity to go in there and play a football game, find out what we need to work on and what we need to learn from,” Nabers said. “Yeah, this opportunity to play another game on Saturday is helpful before the season starts.”
Put me in, Coach:
“I always want to play,” Jones said. “As a player, you always want to play. It’s a decision Dabs has to make, and I’ll be ready for whatever he decides.”
Nabers dropped his big chance to make an impact when he dropped a slightly underthrown bomb down the left sideline from Daniel Jones against Brandin Echols.
“It bothered me. It bothered me pretty bad,” Nabers said. “Practice getting my eyes around faster and finding the ball in the air.”
He pointed the finger at himself: “No, I didn’t have to come back for it. It was just when I had turned my eyes back on the other side of the shoulder that I kind of lost the ball, then I found it later. It was just a drop. I just have to try to catch it better, I guess.”
Giants fans need not worry. You better believe he will. You better believe across the next decade or so Gardner versus Nabers will be a compelling must-watch rivalry.
“He’s nice … he’s very sudden when it comes to getting in and out of his breaks,” Gardner said. “He reminds me of like an LSU receiver. Like kinda a little Ja’Marr Chase a little bit. A little Justin Jefferson … subtle. I ain’t just gonna compare him to nobody ’cause at the end of the day he’s Malik. You don’t really want to limit nobody and what their potential is or nothing like that. But those are two guys that he reminds me of a little bit.
“He’s gonna be a pretty good player.”
He was asked to describe the characteristics of an LSU receiver.
“I feel like they all fast,” Gardner said. “They can get skinny, like got bend, good hands. Can get in and out of their breaks.”
We only got a small taste of what Gardner vs. Nabers can and will be. Nabers caught one deep middle against Gardner from an efficient and methodical Jones early on in the 7-on-7s, but dropped a low pass across the middle from Jones against Reed and had a bomb he knows he normally catches down the left sideline broken up by Echols.
“I had too many drops,” Nabers said. “I had a lot of catches that could have been made on the field.”
He sees himself as elite and holds himself to the highest standard.
“It’s whoever can make those plays, and I think I can make those plays,” Nabers said.
Reed displayed his usual sticky coverage in his matchups against Nabers.
“He’s great,” Nabers said. “Great competitor. Smooth feet. Plays the ball pretty well when the ball is in the air. Knows formations and concepts, so going against him I kind of had to switch my game up a little bit so he wasn’t jumping a lot of the routes.”
Reed is 5-foot-9. Gardner is 6-3.
“Different sizes, different lengths,” Nabers said. “Everybody’s game is really going to be different.”
Gardner’s well-documented practice battles against Wilson have benefited him greatly.
“Obviously I go up against Garrett every day, so that just makes it easier when I gotta go against guys with different color jerseys on, ’cause Garrett’s a top-five receiver in the league,” Gardner said. “Just being able to go up against him each day just makes me better.”
Every dawg has his day. Nabers will be that dawg. Nothing to bark about on this day.
“I had too many drops,” Nabers said.
This will be a compelling New York rivalry across the next decade: Sauce Gardner versus Malik Nabers.