Sauce Gardner Adds to DeAndre Hopkins Joining Jets Speculation With Latest Tweet

After missing out in the Odell Beckham Jr. sweepstakes, Sauce Gardner jumped in on the latest speculation involving the Jets adding offensive talent ahead of the anticipated arrival of Aaron Rodgers

Early Wednesday, Dov Kleiman of BroBible, tweeted about New York’s reported interest in pursuing a trade for star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins of the Arizona Cardinals.

The “report” originated from Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, who responded in his Wednesday mailbag column to a question that asked whether the Jets would be interested in Hopkins. Here’s a portion of his response:

“Yes, conditionally. I think the Jets are going to do everything they can to go all in around Aaron Rodgers the way, say, the Buccaneers went all in around Tom Brady over the past three years, but they’ll try and do it with some intelligent restraint, like Tampa did. If the Jets can get Hopkins to work with them on the money, I could certainly see this happening.”

Though Breer did not claim to have legitimate sources saying that the rumor is true, it did not stop Gardner from weighing in on Dov’s tweet. 

“Me & DHop had a great talk when I was in Dallas last week????,” the 2022 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year wrote in response.

Gardner’s latest supposed recruitment immediately set Jets Twitter ablaze with his implication that he spoke with Hopkins about potentially joining him in New York.

Me & Dhop had a great talk when I was in Dallas last week???????? https://t.co/4xjwNewEiW

— D’ROY GARDNER (@iamSauceGardner) April 12, 2023

Hopkins is arguably one of the best wideouts in the NFL, but the five-time Pro Bowler has a prohibitive contract. 

“DeAndre Hopkins is due $15.09 million in cash this year, and $19.45 million in cash next year,” Breer explained in his column. “He’s five months older than Beckham and he, like Beckham, has a lot of miles on his legs and a significant injury history, and it’s been a few years since he played a full season. So I get why [the Jets would] balk at paying Beckham $15 million for a year, and that’s exactly where Hopkins’s price tag is for 2022.”

For the salary cash-strapped Jets, who were reluctant to give Beckman $15 million this season, it’s hard to envision agreeing to even more allocation of funds for Hopkins, even with his elite talents.