D.J. Reed likes his Sauce spicy.
Reed backed Jets teammate Sauce Gardner, the 2022 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, and Jets legend Darrelle Revis, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, in their recent Twitter feud against retired four-time Pro Bowler Asante Samuel, who claimed their résumés are creations of the New York media.
“I told Sauce, ‘If you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t popping,’ ” Reed said Wednesday as the Jets reported to training camp. “Clearly people are mad at what he did, but you can’t deny being a First-Team All-Pro, you can’t deny having the most [pass breakups, 20] in the league, you can’t deny having the [one of the] lowest passer ratings in the league. People can say what they want, but it really doesn’t matter because he put it on tape last year.”
An ESPN-conducted poll of NFL players, coaches, scouts and executives revealed Gardner as the NFL’s No. 2-ranked cornerback. Samuel, whose namesake son is a third-year starting cornerback for the Chargers, replied that “the New York media will take your career to another level,” prompting Gardner to point out the credentials of (non-media) voters in self-defense.
Revis hopped in and told Samuel to “quit being a hater when it comes to young rising stars @ the cornerback position. Be mad @ the voters who never considered you shutdown.”
Reed, an active Twitter user, stayed quiet as the barbs continued to escalate, but weighed in when asked to, one day before he and Gardner are back on the field for a second season together as arguably the NFL’s best cornerback tandem.
“I have a lot of respect for Asante. I believe he should be in the Hall of Fame,” Reed said. “I think that’s what he’s trying to do, talk about himself to get his name relevant to be talked about in the Hall of Fame. He had 51 interceptions, he’s Mr. Pick-Six.“I just personally don’t think it was right for him to try to go at guys … like Revis, and Sauce. That’s just my opinion. Of course I’m with them.”
Opposing quarterbacks had a 53.9 rating when throwing at Gardner and a still-paltry 75.7 when throwing at Reed.
“For this year, one like I like about sauce and myself, we have a humility about ourselves and we know that last year is last year and we’re going to focus on this year,” Reed posted. “To get to where we want to be, we’re going to have to be better than we were last year.”