It appears there’s no love lost between Sauce Gardner and his former Jets teammate, Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman.
Hours after the star Jets cornerback seemingly implied that Hardman, 25, leaked the team’s offensive gameplan to the Eagles in a since-deleted post on X, Gardner, 23, shaded the three-time Super Bowl champ in a separate message Wednesday night.
Reacting to a 2013 post from Hardman that read, “People say don’t snitch ? Ion see it like that . ! If your life on the line im telling on everybody .. !” Gardner wrote, “Lol.”
Hardman, whose Jets tenure didn’t last the full 2023 season, drew the ire of his former teammates after unloading on Gang Green this week during an appearance on “The Pivot Podcast.”
“You just got a new [offensive] coaching staff that came in and there’s no standard there. Everybody does what they want to do,” said Hardman, who signed a one-year deal with the Jets last offseason.
“Granted, the defense has more of a stabilized standard with the coaching staff on that side, so the defense has a standard.
“But the offense is just like, ‘We’ll just figure it out. It’s Aaron’s show. Let Aaron do what Aaron does.’ Then when Aaron goes down, it’s like, we don’t know what to do.”
The Jets hired former Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett — who worked with four-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay — before they acquired the quarterback from the Packers in an April 2023 blockbuster.
Despite entering the year with playoff expectations, Rodgers suffered a season-ending Achilles injury just four plays into his Jets career in Week 1.
Embattled quarterback Zach Wilson, who was meant to serve as Rodgers’ backup following two shaky seasons, was then thrust under center.
Hardman only tallied one catch for 6 yards before he was traded in October back to the Chiefs, with whom he won his third Super Bowl following a game-sealing touchdown against the 49ers on Feb. 11.
“It’s the lies and the way they handled me. I didn’t like it at all,” Hardman said of the Jets. “You can’t do that to a player. A player that you paid at that. … I play one play, oh hell no. Something got to shake bro, like what we talking about bro.”
Gardner and punter Thomas Morstead were among the Jets who fired back on Wednesday.
“We ain’t gon talk about how our offensive gameplan got leaked vs. the Eagles tho,” Gardner wrote in a message that has since been scrubbed.
Morstead, 37, also posted a cryptic message without addressing Hardman by name.
“Be careful getting information from disgruntled former employees. Getting beat out by a rookie free agent after being guaranteed millions of dollars is tough to deal with,” Morstead began, referring to rookie wide receiver Xavier Gipson.
“Entitlement is a killer of opportunity. You have to earn it every year.”