Letâs start this off simple: New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL.
Scratch that: Sauce Gardner is one of the best players in the NFL.
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In Sauce Gardner's first 2 NFL seasons:
đ„ 2 Pro Bowls
đ„ 2 All-Pro awards
đ„ Ranked the #1 CB in the NFL after both seasons
đ„ H1MSauce Gardner's best plays from 2023 đ#Jets pic.twitter.com/OYtHibpAnw
— Harrison Glaser (@NYJetsTFMedia) January 20, 2024
Beyond that, heâs doing it despite having relatively little NFL experience, as he is entering only his third season in the league. The expression âthe sky is it the limitâ is probably thrown around too much, but Sauce Gardnerâs early career success has made it apt when discussing him.
play this offseason?
This began when anonymous NFL personnel derided Sauce for being too prone to holding calls in coverage and ranking him as the NFLâs 3rd best cornerback.
It has since continued with Sauce being ranked the 38th best player in the NFL by his peers, which sounds like a compliment but is a 15 spot drop from his ranking of 23rd last season.
So what gives? His performance remained elite. He now has a longer track record of being a shutdown corner. This is a player who should be receiving more praise, not less, and yet here we are.
So why?
Well, if I had to guess, itâs simply that the bar for Sauce Gardner is set really, really high; perhaps too high for anyone to reach when the NFL media cycle runs 12 months a year and features a ton of content creators whose entire job it is to nitpick performance. Beyond that, Sauce has become a media darling given his great play and easy to remember nickname, which may simply put more eyes on him and draw a bit more ire from those who work for smaller markets and whose players may not get the same attention.
Regardless, Sauce is one of the best cornerbacks in the league. Sans injury, heâs likely to show as much once again. And, hey, maybe the seeming disrespect is simply a sign heâs doing something right, or at least thatâs what head coach Robert Saleh would tell you.
