Jets star cornerback Sauce Gardner watched Sunday's loss to the Dolphins from the sideline.
Gardner missed the game with a hamstring injury.
But he saw the familiar sight of the Jets' defense collapsing in another loss.
Gardner said Wednesday that the Jets' defense may be entering the season “too comfortable” because of the offensive star power of Aaron Rodgers, Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall, as well as the mid-season addition of Davante Adams. He said no.
“Maybe we were too comfortable with all those players, all those playmakers being part of the offense. It felt like our end of the bargain wasn't filled in,” Gardner said. “We've got to get better. We've got to get better defensively.”
The Jets' defense has allowed leads in the fourth quarter in each of the last three games, but lost all of them.
The assumption going into this season was that the defense would be as good as it has been the past two years and that if Rodgers was healthy, the Jets would be able to make the playoffs. Instead, the defense took a big step back.
“If we had the offense we have now and played defense almost as good as we have the last few years, I would be thrilled by now,” Gardner said. “This year was not what I imagined it would be.”
Coach Gardner said the defense is trying to get back to the mentality it had the past two years.
“We've got to play like we've been playing the last few years, like we've got to win the game, not really expecting the offense to score that many points.” Gardner said. .
Gardner said he is healthy and scheduled to play Sunday in Jacksonville.
The Jets placed special teams ace Irv Charles on injured reserve after tearing his ACL in Sunday's game against Miami.
The team signed cornerback Jaylin Simpson from the Colts' practice squad. Simpson was a fourth-round pick in the spring.
Hall still battling knee injury, interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said.
“Maybe he's not improving as much as he would like at the moment, so we'll see what happens this week,” Ulbrich said.
The Jets did not practice Wednesday. Instead, a walkthrough was performed.
The injury report is an estimate of what the player did during practice.
Hall (knee), RB Kene Wangwu (hand), DE Haason Reddick (illness) and RG Aliyah Bella Tucker (My ankle) I didn't practice. C.B. Brandin Echols (shoulder), RT Morgan Moses (wrist), G Xavier Newman (groin) and CB DJ Reed (groin) were limited.
