The league still sees Sauce Gardner as one of the NFL’s top corners, even if the conversation around him has gotten a little louder and a little messier.
In ESPN’s annual poll of coaches, executives and scouts, Gardner landed at No. 9 among cornerbacks, a drop from No. 5 a year ago. The ranking came with the usual split verdict that has followed him for years: elite traits, elite reputation, and plenty of debate about the details.
Gardner’s path to Indianapolis was already one of the biggest swings the Colts have made in recent franchise history. At last year’s trade deadline, they sent wide receiver AD Mitchell and their 2026 and 2027 first-round picks to the New York Jets for the former Defensive Rookie of the Year. Gardner had been a First-Team All-Pro in 2022 and 2023, but his standing had started to wobble a bit after that scorching beginning in New York.
The move to Indianapolis didn’t give him much time to settle in. Gardner started well, but a calf injury cut short his debut season with the Colts and limited him to just two full games.
Context matters there, and it was a rough one: he played in London with the Jets on Oct. 12, got traded on Tues., Nov. 4, then had to travel to Indianapolis, learn the playbook, practice, and board a plane with the Colts to Berlin, Germany two days later on Thurs., Nov. 6.
That all happened in less than a month after he had already played overseas in Europe.
He ended up playing two full games for Indianapolis, both of them overtime games, before the calf issue hit in his third appearance. He came back three weeks later, only to aggravate it again and miss the final game of the season.
That limited sample still showed why so many evaluators keep him near the top of the position. Last season, Gardner’s nine pass breakups on 293 coverage snaps - 3.1% - led the league by percentage. Since entering the league in 2022, his 39 passes defended are tied with Denzel Ward for second most in the NFL over that span, behind only Alontae Taylor’s 40.
The production, though, remains part of the argument against him. Gardner has only three interceptions in four NFL seasons, and some evaluators still ding him for missed tackles and too much grabbing.
“Sauce lost the sauce,” an NFL offensive coach said. “Now, he got traded for a reason -- he's a long strider and has the confidence to overshadow his weaknesses.
He can press and play Cover 2. But he's not going to tackle all the time, he's not going to crack replace, and when playing zone, sometimes he's not playing it correctly.
It's just hard for him to hold up over the course of the game.”
Others think a full season with Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, who comes from the defensive backs side of the game, could help smooth out some of those issues.
A different personnel evaluator still sees the athletic gifts first.
“Not many move like him,” an NFL personnel evaluator said. “He moves like a much smaller man. But he's not making plays at the same rate he was.”
The numbers from his 2025 Colts stint support the idea that he was still playing at a high level when healthy. Pro Football Focus had him allowing a 48.6% completion percentage when targeted, and he tied for second among corners in forced incompletion rate at 26%. His overall defensive grade was 76.9, which ranked ninth.
Gardner, for his part, wants the ball to come his way more often.
"I hope (quarterbacks) think that they should go at me," Gardner recently said during minicamp. "That's what I would like them to think, so I can get more targets and be able to have more ball production, change the game more.
"As a corner, we want those accolades. We want those statistics.
We want picks. We want PBUs.
We want all of those things. I used to think that way (not being thrown at) like my first couple years in the league, but it's like, I want more now, you know?
I want to make plays on the ball, a lot more plays."
Gardner wasn’t the only corner to draw attention in Fowler’s poll. Kamari Lassiter of the Houston Texans, Joey Porter Jr. of the Pittsburgh Steelers, A.J. Terrell Jr. of the Atlanta Falcons, and Jaylon Johnson of the Chicago Bears were named honorable mentions.
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