One measure of Sauce Gardner’s excellence as an NFL cornerback is we’re all entirely past the need to use his given name. It’s Ahmad, if you’ve forgotten. And we could do away with his family name, as well, and you’d still be able to identify the subject of this discussion.
Sauce was traded Tuesday to the Colts, hours before the league deadline, for two first-round picks and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell. It’s a significant addition to an Indianapolis team that suddenly has developed Super Bowl aspirations, but more so it’s another reminder the Jets will find a way to foul up even the simplest of assignments.
You’ve got a player like Sauce, you keep him. You say nice things about him, sign him to a contract that offers a bunch of money and as much security as tenable. Then you try to find more players to fill the other roster spots worthy of sharing the field with him.
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Instead, the Jets will sell their surprisingly loyal fans on the idea that two first-round picks offer a greater chance at a boundless future. Mitchell was a second-round pick in 2024 but couldn’t crack the Colts’ lineup and has only 32 receptions in two years.
The Jets went ahead and did this sort of thing again before even two hours passed by trading defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, a three-time Pro Bowler and one of the the elite run defenders in the league, for a first-rounder from the Cowboys. The closest thing to justification for this one is Williams is 28, but Pittsburgh’s Cam Heyward made all seven of his Pro Bowls since reaching that age.
The Jets had the No. 4 overall pick in 2022, and that’s the one they spent on Sauce. It was one of the rare moves they unequivocally got right in the past 15 years. He was named the Defensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press and Pro Football Writers of America in 2022, and he’s been first-team All-Pro twice.
He has only three interceptions in his career, none this year, but much of that is because teams see no point in challenging him. Fewer than half the targets aimed toward the receiver he’s defended have turned into completions; he ranks fifth in the league in reception rate. He’s averaged nearly one pass defensed per game in his four seasons.
All this might tell you why Sauce is special. What everyone should understand, what the Jets clearly should have known, is how even high-end first-round picks don’t always turn into high-end NFL players. Of the next nine players chosen after Sauce in 2022, not one even has appeared in a Pro Bowl through three seasons. That’s true, in total, of 18 of the next 19 players chosen, the lone exception being Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton.
Only six players chosen between fifth pick and the end of the first round in 2023 have made the Pro Bowl. For 2021, the number is seven. So that’s a 20 percent chance of getting a player who even moderately could be described as a star. And while there is a Ja’Marr Chase, Micah Parsons and Patrick Surtain in that category, there also are Mac Jones and Najee Harris.
Would you trade Sauce straight-up for Mac Jones and Najee Harris?
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In 2022, the Jets had two picks in the top 10, three in the first round and four in the first 30. They selected such quality players as Sauce, wide receiver Garrett Wilson and running back Breece Hall. They’ve won 33.9 percent of their games since, the equivalent of a 6-11 season. They’re 1-7 now, the only win coming in late October against the Bengals.
These two picks are unlikely to be toward the front of the draft, with the Colts currently owning one of the top records in the AFC, at 7-2.
It’s easy to argue that a team in the Jets’ position is winning nothing and thus loses the same by trading away a player such as Sauce. But that can become an unending cycle. Draft a great player, fail a few seasons, trade him for younger players, repeat the process.
The Jets have produced only one winning season since reaching consecutive AFC Championship games in 2009 and 2010. In this century, they’ve drafted four quarterbacks in the first round. The Jets’ composite record with Zach Wilson, Sam Darnold, Mark Sanchez and Chad Pennington starting at QB: 90-104.
Jets general manager Darren Mougey was hired in January. As he was working in Denver previously, he can’t be blamed for any of the Jets’ past blunders.
This one’s on him, though.
It looks very much like the work of those Jets.
