Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

2022 NFL defensive rookie of the year: Sauce Gardner

nWpi7mgKzGPh
Mike Florio and Chris Simms are joined by Jets WR Garrett Wilson to understand what the transition was like playing in the NFL, where he believes the Jets stand heading into next season and more.

Sauce Gardner’s reputation as a lockdown cornerback at Cincinnati led the Jets to take him with the fourth overall pick last April and it proved to be foreshadowing of the kind of player he’d turn out to be in the NFL.

Gardner became a starter right off the bat and he consistently shut down his side of the field against opposing passing games over the course of his rookie season. That helped the Jets get off to a 7-4 start before their offensive woes led to a six-game losing streak and it convinced Associated Press voters to tab him as the defensive rookie of the year.

The announcement came at the NFL Honors show in Phoenix on Thursday night. Gardner was joined as a finalist by Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen.

Gardner got 46 first-place votes while Hutchinson had three and Woolen had one. Gardner had the other four second-place votes, which left Hutchinson in second and Woolen in third.

The win makes it a clean sweep for Jets rookies as wide receiver Garrett Wilson was named the offensive rookie of the year earlier in the evening.

Gardner had a league-best 20 passes defensed in regular season and he picked off a pair of passes. He also recorded 75 tackles, three tackles for loss, and a quarterback hit on Dolphins quarterback Teddy Bridgewater that resulted in a safety because Bridgewater was called for intentional grounding in the end zone.

That production resulted in a Pro Bowl berth and an All-Pro selection ahead of Gardner’s big award win on Thursday night.