Sauce Gardner’s Now-Deleted Reaction To Jets Firing Steve Wilks

The New York Jets made a change on Monday.

New York allowed 48 points on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars and quickly responded with the firing of former Jets defensive coordinator Steve Wilks after 14 games with the franchise this season.

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Jets head coach Aaron Glenn announced the move and the reasoning behind the decision on Monday morning.

"I relieved Steve Wilks of his duties this morning as our defensive coordinator," Glenn announced. "Chris Harris will actually be (handling) some of those duties right now and I will be helping him as he progresses throughout the week as our coordinator. Everybody else will stay the same. This decision that I made late last night and I talked to him this morning. I felt like it was the best decision for this organization at this time. I've said this all along that I'm evaluating players, I'm evaluating coaches, I'm evaluating myself, and I just felt like this was the best decision for right now for the team and this organization."

Unsurprisingly, the firing of Wilks with three games to go has led to a wide range of opinions on social media. One person who weighed in -- and deleted their take -- on X is former Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner.

"Current/former players that Coach Wilks coached knows he's one of the best/smartest defensive coordinators in the NFL," Gardner wrote on X. "It's not always what it seems."

Former #Jets Cornerback Sauce Gardner weighs in on the firing of Steve Wilks.

More people defending Wilks than I expected. Guess you don’t keep getting jobs after a 1 and done every year since 2018 for nothing pic.twitter.com/svcATqGAVv
— Stefan Stelling (@li_jets) December 15, 2025

Gardner and fellow All-Pro Quinnen Williams were a part of a trade deadline defensive exodus from the franchise. New York traded Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts, Williams to the Dallas Cowboys, and Michael Carter II to the Philadelphia Eagles.

While this is the case, the Eagles' passing defense has been above average. New York is currently ranked 12th in the league with 200.1 passing yards allowed per game. While this is the case, New York is allowing the fourth-most rushing yards per game (137.2 yards) and the third-most points per game (28.4).

Unfortunately, things didn't work out -- even though there clearly were fans in the building for Wilks -- and now the Jets are turning the page.

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