FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Sauce Gardner is trying to cook up an even better version of himself this season for the New York Jets.
And the star cornerback's new defensive coordinator is pushing him to get there.
“It’s so many things that I feel like Sauce can do,” Steve Wilks said during the Jets’ three-day minicamp this week. “Again, the word ‘consistent.’ He’s been a Pro Bowl player. How consistent can he be to take it to another level? And that’s one of the things that I challenged him Day 1 when we had our conversation.”
Gardner saw Wilks' comments and appreciated them.
“He was talking about me just being the same each and every week, and that's borderline perfect,” Gardner said Thursday. “I know I'm not perfect, but the fact that he's trying to get perfection out of me is what I need.”
Gardner was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft out of Cincinnati and established himself as one of the league's top cornerbacks during his first two seasons with the Jets, which included being selected the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year and making the All-Pro team in consecutive years for then-coach Robert Saleh and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
But after what has been perceived by some as a down season — he didn't make the All-Pro or Pro Bowl teams — Gardner is out to prove his naysayers wrong.
“I feel like it’s always been noise surrounding me after each of my years that I’ve played,” he said. “I’ve always been like the underdog.”
And Wilks and new coach Aaron Glenn are helping provide the motivation.
“The last thing I need is a new regime to come in here and just allow me to be complacent,” Gardner said. “Not saying that's who I am, but it's just great to have those types of guys that's going to demand a lot out of me and just push me in ways that I’ve never been pushed before.”
Gardner's first two seasons had some comparing him to Pro Football Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis in the way teams had to be wary whenever they threw the football in his direction. Some of Gardner's critics, though, said he often got away with holding receivers and his coverage last season slipped. Also, Gardner had just one interception and a career-low nine passes defensed.
“I feel like I played pretty smooth,” Gardner said. “After all of my years, I always think there are things I can be better on. But it's never as bad as people try to paint it to be."
The analytics site Pro Football Focus supports Gardner's assessment, giving him a 91.9 coverage grade since 2022 that leads the league. His 46 forced incompletions are an NFL best in that span, as is his 0.60 yards per cover snap.
“I felt like, and you guys feel the same way, that he’s one of the top corners in the league, but that consistency of being that dominant player each and every week, that’s what we’re looking for and that’s been his challenge this offseason,” Wilks said. "He’s very gifted and I told him sometimes your greatest strength is your greatest weakness. He’s a guy that sometimes that 85% is still better than everybody around him.
“So his thing is, and I told him, compete against yourself. That’s where he has to get better, which he will.”
Glenn and new general manager Darren Mougey believe Gardner is a foundation piece for the franchise, which is why the Jets picked up the fifth-year option on his rookie contract. Gardner is in line for an extension, but declined to say whether he wants to be the league's highest-paid cornerback.
“My main focus is being the best football player I could be,” he said. “But my team and the Jets have been talking and I feel pretty good about how the talks have been going.”
Gardner opted to participate in mandatory minicamp rather than hold out to try to push for a new deal.
“Man, I just wanted to show my teammates, show the coaches how much I’m bought into this,” he said. “I want to win. I want to change the organization. I want to be a part of changing the organization.”
Gardner believes he can help do that by improving in two particular areas: getting more interceptions and developing into a greater team leader.
“Here's what I want Sauce to do and here's what I've talked to him about who he needs to be,” said Glenn, a three-time Pro Bowl pick during his playing days as a cornerback. "When you do lead, just let your influence do all the talking. Like, how do you operate in the huddle with the players, in the locker room That speaks more than the rah-rah guy.
“And he understands that because influence to me is what really leadership is about. Like, how do you influence your other teammates? How do you influence people around you no matter what? And I think he’s done a really good job of that.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner catches the ball during practice at NFL football minicamp, Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Florham Park,N.J. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran signaled Friday that security forces would crack down on protesters, directly challenging U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to support those peacefully demonstrating as the death toll rose to at least 62.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Trump as having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” as supporters shouted “Death to America!” in footage aired by Iranian state television. State media later repeatedly referred to demonstrators as “terrorists,” setting the stage for a violent crackdown like those that followed other nationwide protests in recent years.
Protesters are “ruining their own streets ... in order to please the president of the United States,” the 86-year-old Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in Tehran. “Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”
There was no immediate response from Washington, though Trump has repeated his pledge to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that's taken on greater significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro.
Despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls, short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas into Friday morning.
Iranian state media alleged “terrorist agents” of the U.S. and Israel set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were “casualties,” without elaborating.
The full scope of the demonstrations couldn’t be immediately determined due to the communications blackout, though it represented yet another escalation in protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy and that has morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in several years. The protests have intensified steadily since beginning Dec. 28.
The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi, who called for the protests Thursday night, similarly has called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. Friday.
Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 62 people while more than 2,300 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
“What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.”
“This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.”
When the clock struck 8 p.m. Thursday, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.
“Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication,” Pahlavi said. “It has shut down the internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals.”
He went on to call for European leaders to join Trump in promising to “hold the regime to account.”
“I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen,” he added. “Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced.”
Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The internet cut also appears to have taken Iran’s state-run and semiofficial news agencies offline. The state TV acknowledgment at 8 a.m. Friday represented the first official word about the demonstrations.
State TV claimed the protests were violent and caused casualties, but did not offer nationwide figures. It said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.” State TV later reported that violence overnight killed six people in Hamedan, some 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Tehran, and two security force members in Qom, 125 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital.
The European Union and Germany condemned the violence targeting demonstrators as new protests were reported in Zahedan in Iran's restive southwestern Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Iran has faced rounds of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after the 12-day war, its rial currency collapsed in December, reaching 1.4 million to $1. Protests began soon after, with demonstrators chanting against Iran’s theocracy.
It remains unclear why Iranian officials have yet to crack down harder on the demonstrators. Trump warned last week that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” America “will come to their rescue.”
In an interview with talk show host Hugh Hewitt aired Thursday, Trump reiterated his pledge.
Iran has “been told very strongly, even more strongly than I’m speaking to you right now, that if they do that, they’re going to have to pay hell,” Trump said.
He demurred when asked if he’d meet with Pahlavi.
“I’m not sure that it would be appropriate at this point to do that as president,” Trump said. “I think that we should let everybody go out there, and we see who emerges.”
Speaking in an interview with Sean Hannity aired Thursday night on Fox News, Trump went as far as to suggest Khamenei may want to leave Iran.
“He's looking to go someplace,” Trump said. “It's getting very bad.”
This frame grab from a video released by Iran state TV shows vehicles burning amid night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)
This frame grab from a video released Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by Iranian state television shows cars driving past burning vehicles during a night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian state TV via AP)
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people blocking an intersection during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Thursday Jan. 8, 2026. (UGC via AP)
