On this, the one-year anniversary of the Sauce Gardner trade, it appears to have turned out to be an apocalyptically bad deal.
There’s a really good reason for this.
It’s because it was, in fact, an apocalyptically bad deal.
That’s absolutely no reflection on Gardner, who didn’t ask to be dealt to Indianapolis from the New York Jets for two-first picks and young receiver AD Mitchell. Gardner is a top-tier corner who, if he was blessed to play on a decent NFL team for the first time in his career, would be viewed as a key contributor, even a star, for a good defense. As it is, he’s on a team that has no pass rush – the Colts have the league’s worst pass rush win rate -- and has a committee of linebackers who haven’t yet developed. (Although Caden Curry, who played well in Jacksonville, is going to see more snaps and has a chance to be a player.) Suffice to say the Colts corners, Gardner and Charvarius Ward, are the very least of the team’s problems.
The problem with judging elite cornerbacks is, nobody throws at them. They get only the rarest opportunities to make a pass breakup or get an interception. Yes, Gardner could have and should have made the pick last week in Jacksonville; got to make those catches when the chances are so few and far between. This year, he’s given up 10 completions on 20 attempts, the only real obvious hiccups coming when he gave up two semi-fluky explosive plays against the Washington Commanders. After that game, he actually called himself out for a lack of effort on one particular play, which is very unusual and showed a high level of public accountability.
You ask, “So why hasn’t he made an impact the way Jeffery Simmons, the defensive lineman traded to the Bears for two number-ones last week, did when he wrecked the game in Chicago’s victory over the Seattle Seahawks?”
