Sauce Gardner spent his first day with the Colts on Wednesday and quarterback Daniel Jones said that you can “feel the energy” that the trade for the cornerback generated.
The move came days after the Colts dropped to 7-2 in a loss to the Steelers, but the investment that the Colts made — two first-round picks and wide receiver AD Mitchell — to get Gardner was a clear sign that the team believes it is capable of making a big run this year. Jones said that message is one that has created confidence across the roster.
“I think, obviously, they believe in our team and what we can do this year,” Jones said from the team’s locker room. “We’ve played well. There’s still a lot in front of us and we’ve got to go continue to improve and play well week to week. But, as players, you see that movement from ownership, from management and the coaches, I think it definitely gives you confidence.”
Trading away first-round picks in 2026 and 2027 also limits the Colts’ ability to take a big swing for another quarterback, so it is also a pretty sure sign of the team’s confidence in Jones beyond this season. Jones is on a one-year deal, but said on Wednesday that he hasn’t thought about how the Gardner trade plays into his own future.
The Colts made a big move by trading for cornerback Sauce Gardner on Tuesday.
In his Wednesday press conference, Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen told reporters that he’s happy to have the cornerback aboard.
“Obviously, really excited about adding Sauce Gardner to our football team,” Steichen said, via Kevin Bowen of 107.5 The Fan. “His resume speaks for itself — Pro Bowler, All-Pro. So, to get a guy in the building like that, it just elevates everybody around us. So really excited to add him.”
While Gardner is in concussion protocol and missed the Jets’ Week 8 win over the Bengals before the Week 9 bye, Steichen noted Gardner is set to practice on Wednesday. If he clears protocol, then he will play Sunday when the Colts take on the Falcons in Berlin.
Gardner has recorded 20 total tackles and six passes defensed in his seven games so far in 2025.
In June, the Jets made Sauce Gardner the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL. Less than four months later, they traded him.
On Tuesday, G.M. Darren Mougey explained that the $30.1 million-per-year deal was specifically designed to make it easy to move.
“We had a lot of discussion going through that contract process, and some of the details we had to have in that contract,” Mougey told reporters. “Because you never know how the future’s gonna unfold. And we always want to be in a position to potentially trade these contracts. . . . [We] made that contract still a tradeable contract, for the case where you get into a situation where you think the value is too good to pass up, and that was the case here.”
It’s an important factor that should be considered when analyzing all major contracts. Beyond the question of when the team can tear up the deal from a cap standpoint (even though the player is stuck for as long as the team wants to keep him), the structure should be evaluated to see when it could be easily traded.
The Myles Garrett contract in Cleveland, for example, was not structured to be tradeable in the short term; the cap hit in 2026 would have been $63 million. The Jets have paid out less than $15 million to Gardner, and they’ll take an $11 million cap charge next year as a result of the trade.
In the aftermath of a disastrous end to the 2023 season for the Eagles, we pointed out that the Eagles could easily trade quarterback Jalen Hurts from a cap standpoint, if they decided to do so. (And if he was willing to waive his no-trade clause.) Even though they didn’t (and they’re surely glad they kept him), the structure of the deal made it theoretically possible.
That’s the point. Plenty of long-term, big-money deals don’t handcuff the team. And Mougey’s comments lay bare the basic reality that every team views all players as parts of a machine that inevitably will be replaced. Very few players are untouchable. For most player contracts, there’s an offer his current team won’t refuse.
The Jets made certain that they’d be able to move on from Gardner, if someone else was willing to make a massive offer. And so the piece comes out of the machine, it gets sold for a significant return, and a new part gets crammed into the empty slot.
It’s a basic reality of pro sports. Teams are always looking for ways to upgrade their current parts, and they’re always looking for opportunities to sell a current part for more than they think that part is worth.
For the Colts, getting Gardner was worth two first-round picks and receiver AD Mitchell. For the Jets, getting two first-round picks and Mitchell was worth giving up Gardner.
Regardless, all players are viewed by the 32 franchises as temporary pieces of a machine. It’s a dynamic that rarely gets discussed by the teams, because it makes it much harder to sell the NFL’s “football is family” fiction.
Football is business. And part of that business is to never get emotionally attached to the pieces of the football machine. Because the business that is football mandates having the ability and the willingness to remove and to replace any, some, or all of those parts.
The Jets were involved in the two biggest deals ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s trade deadline and General Manager Darren Mougey held a press conference to discuss the deals after the deadline passed.
Mougey traded cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Colts and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys in a pair of trades that brought back a 2026 first-round pick, a 2026 second-round pick, two 2027 first-round picks, wide receiver AD Mitchell, and defensive tackle Mazi Smith. Mougey said that it is “never easy moving on from any player, let alone guys like Sauce and Quinnen,” but that the team felt they got offers they could not resist.
“You’re set on what these values are, what they’re really worth and these players and what you might be willing to do to part ways with them,” Mougey said. “We got to today and had these offers that we just felt were too good for the team, and we made that with Sauce and Quinnen.”
The Jets signed Gardner to a four-year extension this offseason, but Mougey said it was structured to make sure Gardner could be traded in the future. The expectation was not that it would happen quite so quickly, but the offers from the Colts kept “getting richer and richer in their value.”
At 1-7, the Jets had ample reason to look forward to the future before Tuesday’s trades. Now that they’ve been made, there’s no doubt that the Jets will be doing some major roster construction and their ability to nail that process will determine how these two trades are viewed in the long run.
Cornerback Sauce Gardner is no longer a Jet, but he’s still No. 1.
The Colts announced that Gardner will continue to wear No. 1 after Tuesday’s trade that sent him to Indianapolis. Gardner has worn that number since being drafted by the Jets with the fourth overall pick in 2022.
Wide receiver Josh Downs has been wearing that number with the Colts this season and will be No. 2 moving forward. Downs, whose brother Caleb is No. 2 for Ohio State, shared a view of his new look on social media on Tuesday afternoon.
The Colts traded their next two first-round picks and wide receiver AD Mitchell to the Jets in exchange for Gardner. He’s expected to make his debut for the team in Berlin against the Falcons on Sunday.
