Sauce Gardner teases star weapon that could join Aaron Rodgers in New York

After the New York Jets lost out on Odell Beckham Jr., cornerback Sauce Gardner has teased recruiting another star wide receiver to join the team.

The New York Jets were aiming high in both free agency and the trade block this offseason. While they have an agreement with quarterback Aaron Rodgers to join the team, they still have to agree to a trade with the Green Bay Packers. As for free agency, they did bring in wide receiver Allen Lazard, but they lost out on Odell Beckham Jr., who signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens. That left Jets fans wondering where the team would pivot to next now that Beckham was off the board.

TheMMQB’s Albert Breer answered a question from a reader in his column that if the Jets would have interest in pivoting to acquiring Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Breer responded, saying, “if the Jets can get Hopkins to work with them on the money, I could certainly see this happening.”

Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner responded to BroBible’s tweet sharing the information from Breer, and decided to tease fans. By that, we mean Gardner said that he spoke to Hopkins when he was in Dallas, Texas recently.

Sauce Gardner teases Jets adding DeAndre Hopkins for Aaron Rodgers

Another Jets player joined in on the Hopkins recruiting effort, and that offensive tackle Mekhi Becton.

For teams that lost out on Beckham, Hopkins felt like the pivot move. After all, he is a big-name receiver who is available. But the question that remains is if he will be on the trading block, or if he’ll be outright released from his contract, where he is set to earn $19.45 million in base salary.

This offseason, the Cardinals allowed Hopkins to seek a trade to a new team, per Breer. This comes after the team initially had a second-round draft pick asking price on him, but no trade partners had transpired. Now, teams believe that the Cardinals could end up releasing Hopkins altogether, per Breer.

Hopkins is coming off a 2022 campaign where he was limited to just nine games due to a six game performance enhancing drug policy violation and a knee injury. In that stretch of games played, Hopkins caught 64-of-96 targets for 717 yards and three touchdowns.

Cardinals voluntary workouts began this week, but Hopkins was not at the facility.

Gardner has teased his recruitment of Hopkins. Will the Jets actually do it? First things first for Jets fans — get Rodgers to New York/New Jersey first.