Jets' Gardner to sit out vs. Dolphins with hamstring injury. Sherwood voted team MVP
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner will sit out the season finale against the Miami Dolphins with a hamstring injury.
Gardner has been dealing with the issue since Week 13 and missed the Jets' last meeting with the Dolphins the following week. He started last week at Buffalo, but didn't return after leaving in the first half.
Gardner, an All-Pro and Pro Bowl selection in each of his first two NFL seasons, finished his third year with one interception, a sack, nine passes defensed and 49 tackles.
The Jets (4-12) will wrap up their season Sunday at MetLife Stadium, while the Dolphins (8-8) need to win and have Denver lose to Kansas City to reach the playoffs for the third straight season.
Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said tight end Tyler Conklin (calf), defensive tackle Quinnen Williams (hamstring), right tackle Morgan Moses (knee) and right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker (ankle) will be game-time decisions. All four were listed as questionable, but Conklin and Vera-Tucker were limited participants at practice while Williams and Moses sat out.
Defensive tackle Leki Fotu was doubtful to play with a knee injury.
With safety Chuck Clark going on injured reserve this week with a torn pectoral muscle, Ulbrich said Ashtyn Davis would get the start opposite Tony Adams.
Sherwood's honor
Linebacker Jamien Sherwood went from being a backup at the beginning of the season to being voted the Jets' MVP by his teammates.
“We had a lot of adversity this season and obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted,” he said after the team's final practice. "But to be recognized by my teammates, peers, future Hall of Famers, Pro Bowlers, All-Pro players, this means a lot to me.
“I feel like not only my on-the-field play was able to help me win this award, but just the way I am amongst the locker room, amongst my teammates, always trying to find some type of energy, some type of enthusiasm to boost everybody up.”
The 2021 fifth-round draft pick out of Auburn is a converted safety who started seven games at linebacker during his first three NFL seasons before moving into a full-time starting role after C.J. Mosley was injured this season.
He leads the Jets with 148 tackles, including a career-high 18 in New York's last game against Miami.
“You would be hard pressed to find a harder worker, not only in this building, but any building in the NFL,” Ulbrich said.
Sherwood is set to become a free agent this offseason.
“I’m just so excited for the future now for him,” Ulbrich said, “because it’s really planted seeds across the league as a guy that everybody’s going to want on their team and he’s going to get rewarded for it. And he deserves every penny he’s going to get.”
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