Jets star corner Sauce Gardner waved goodbye to the Giants’ sideline as the hosts in green romped in celebration during a one-sided Wednesday joint practice in Florham Park.
“They can do that. I mean, they won on the day,” said Giants rookie receiver Malik Nabers, who dropped a potential 45-yard touchdown pass in the final team period. “Their defense came out here, executed well. We beat ourselves today. So it’s about going back into the entire playbook, trying to be us, trying to find this team that we’re trying to look for.”
To add insult to injury, Gardner then struggled through a diplomatic post-practice compliment of Giants $40 million-a-year quarterback Daniel Jones, who has become a lightning rod across the league.
“He’s a good quarterback, you feel me?” Gardner said. “I thought I was about to pick him off today. He had looked at the last minute to try to throw the checkdown to Wan’Dale [Robinson]. I thought I had a pick, but he kept it.
“I mean …,” Gardner continued, looking to his left and pausing.
“Shoot, I mean …,” he repeated, looking down with a smile, seemingly deciding against whatever crossed his mind.
“The competitive periods, it was very competitive,” Gardner finally managed. “And it was great. I had fun out there today, ya know? I don’t really know what to say.”
The Jets corner stopped short of saying anything bulletin-board worthy about Jones, like Baker Mayfield once did with the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers players did last year after a Week 2 win over the Giants in Santa Clara, Calif.
But the awkward pauses spoke loudly: the Jets were not impressed by Jones and the Giants.
Who is the team of New York?
“Us,” said safety Chuck Clark, who laid a big hit early in practice on running back Eric Gray.
As Nabers said, the Jets had every reason to puff out their chests Wednesday.
Aaron Rodgers cooked the Giants’ first-team defense with lots of downfield completions, outside of a couple sacks from the pass rush, including one by prized acquisition Brian Burns.
Jets star receiver Garrett Wilson went off, including a 60-yard bomb TD from Rodgers over top of corner Nick McCloud. Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen then replaced McCloud with Tre Hawkins for the final 11-on-11 team period.
But Rodgers drove the Jets’ offense downfield quickly and flicked a touchdown pass to Allen Lazard, after a Dru Phillips holding penalty had negated a Bobby Okereke interception in the end zone on the previous play.
That final team period was all-Jets all around. Jones and the Giants’ first-team offense went four-and-out.
Nabers caught a short pass on first down, but then he dropped what would have been a 45-yard TD from Jones after getting past Jets corner DJ Reed in coverage.
Darius Slayton’s third down catch was ruled out of bounds, and Jones’ fourth-down completion was knocked down after a furious rush from his right might have sacked him anyway.
Ex-Giant QB Tyrod Taylor then went deep for a touchdown to Jason Brownlee over Giants corner Mario Goodrich before Tommy DeVito’s second-string stalled with a batted pass intended for Isaiah McKenzie.
Taylor’s touchdown to Brownlee is what prompted Gardner to wave the Giants home.
“We were just having fun out there,” Gardner said. “Two New York teams, and we all know each other outside of football. Just having fun with it. It was a little goodbye. I ain’t gonna sugarcoat it. That’s basically what that was. But I do it out of all love. It’s nothing disrespectful like that. We were all being competitive.”
Nabers, 21, blamed himself for not bringing his best to the practice, though. He even appeared to blame himself for a 7-on-7 pass breakup by the Jets’ Brandin Echols, since Nabers is used to coming down with those 50-50 balls.
“I had too many drops,” the No. 6 overall pick said. “Had a lot of catches that could have been made on the field. But it was a great competition day, great work day.”
The dropped touchdown ate at him the most, obviously.
“Yeah, it bothered me,” Nabers said. “It bothered me pretty bad … When I turned my eyes back on the other side of the shoulder, I kind of lost the ball and I found it later. So it was just a drop.”
Jones did not throw an interception on the day, although most of his pass attempts stayed underneath. He was sacked two or three times. A sideline out to tight end Theo Johnson for 15 or 20 yards after a nice blitz pickup by Devin Singletary was his best completion.
Robinson had a ton of catches, including one up the seam for 20-to-25 yards. Most of his targets and receptions were underneath for marginal gains, however. Johnson dropped a huge gain up the left seam. And the Giants’ starters did not run the ball well.
Jones felt like the Giants “executed well,” despite any other reviews of the day.
“Throughout the team drills we moved the ball and executed,” he said. “Obviously you want to finish a little better with the two-minute there at the end. I think if we finish that two-minute with a touchdown, we definitely feel different[ly].”
But coach Robert Saleh’s Jets were the better, more physical side compared to Brian Daboll’s Giants, which Saleh said before practice was an intentional part of how they prepare.
“We’re not trying to revisit the Junction Boys, but at the same time, this country club style that’s kind of taking on all of sport — not just football but all of sport — there’s a fine line,” Saleh said. “They’ve got to be ready to play football.”