Sauce Gardner doesn’t do vacations. The New York Jets cornerback doesn’t believe in them. The idea of chilling at a five-star resort, sipping fruity libations on a white-sand beach, doesn’t appeal to him.
First of all, he doesn’t drink alcohol. No sauce for Sauce. Secondly, he’s a homebody. The Jets’ trip to London in two weeks to face the Minnesota Vikings will be his first time out of the country. He said he hasn’t taken a true vacation since entering the NFL in 2022, offering an existential reason.
“Me, personally, I just feel like you’re just trying to escape the lifestyle that you live,” Gardner said in a quiet moment at his locker. “We play football, and we should be training. So going on that long vacation is getting away from what you’re supposed to be.”
Which explains why he reported to the Jets’ facility two weeks after last season ended to begin training, three months ahead of the official start to the offseason program. It’s why his new, sprawling home in New Jersey includes a recovery room, complete with a red-light therapy bed, sauna, cold tub, treadmill and stationary bike.
From the time he was 4 years old, playing flag football in the Tiny Mites league in the Seven Mile section of Detroit, Gardner’s singular focus has been to play in the NFL and be the best cornerback there ever was. A lot of kids dream that dream, but his early-career trajectory aligns with his life plan, and he’s just 24.
Gardner is the only cornerback since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 to be named first-team All-Pro in each of his first two seasons. Only three defensive players have pulled that off: former New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor, Dallas Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons and Gardner, who said his individual goal this season is to be Defensive Player of the Year.
Now if he could just get his hands on a pass or two, maybe that would silence critics who suggest the sauce isn’t as advertised. He will take a 26-game interception slump into Thursday night against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
Big deal or nah?
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Gardner said one memory of living at the corner of Rowe Street and Seven Mile East made an impact. When he was 14, he saw a man fatally shot outside a liquor store. Out of fear, he didn’t tell anyone.
“It just made me come to the realization that you can’t take anything for granted,” Gardner said. “Me just witnessing that, I was like, ‘Dang.’ I just had to make sure I was locked in on everything – football, school, all that – because I knew ultimately where I wanted to go.”
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Cornerbacks are often evaluated based on their interception total. That calculus can’t be applied to Gardner, who has as many Pro Bowls on his résumé as career picks (two).
In an ESPN survey of nearly 80 NFL coaches, scouts and executives, one unnamed personnel evaluator called Gardner “one of the most overrated players in the league.” The same survey ranked him the third-best corner, behind the Denver Broncos’ Pat Surtain II and the Cleveland Browns’ Denzel Ward.
Former star Richard Sherman, a three-time All-Pro cornerback, believes Gardner has benefitted from geography.
“Obviously, being in the New York market helps,” Sherman, a Prime Video analyst, said on a conference call with reporters. “It helped [Darrelle] Revis, it helps Sauce. … He’s incredibly worthy [of his accolades]. He has been named first-team All-Pro. It’s not because he hasn’t played well, but it definitely helps playing in that New York market and getting that focus on you and then playing well while you’ve got that focus.”
For his money, Sherman said Surtain is the best all-around corner in the sport, adding, “If he was in a big market, if he was playing for the Dallas Cowboys, I don’t think there would be any debate because people would be watching him all the time.”
WHEN TOLD OF Sherman’s comments, Gardner shrugged. He agreed to a certain extent, saying he does profit from playing in New York. But he said that it’s a double-edged sword: More eyes on you means more pressure. Even Sherman acknowledged, “New York can chew you up and spit you out the same way it can raise your game.” Gardner added, “A lot of times, there’s no in-between.”
Gardner welcomes the scrutiny. Asked if he’s the best corner, he said simply, “I try to do it as if I’m the best.”
Former cornerback Jason McCourty, who played 13 years, had initial questions about Gardner despite his lofty draft pedigree – fourth overall in 2022. Those questions didn’t last long.
“Even coming in, I’m wondering how he’s going to do it, covering these guys man-to-man, coming from [the University of] Cincinnati – and he’s just been awesome,” said McCourty, now an ESPN analyst, in a phone interview. “To step into the NFL and to be able to cover some of the best wide receivers, to be an All-Pro and to hit the ground running is just completely elite.”
But what about the lack of interceptions? McCourty said it shouldn’t be a barometer, that Gardner’s ability to neutralize wide receivers trumps his low interception total.
Sherman believes the game has changed. Gone are the days, he said, when corners such as Deion Sanders and Champ Bailey made the Pro Football Hall of Fame with gaudy interception totals – 53 and 52, respectively. In 2023, Revis, the former Jets star, was elected on the first ballot with 29.
“I do think interceptions are important, but I guess, in this day and age, [people] don’t because there’s just not a lot of guys getting them,” said Sherman, who made 37 in his career.
While the interception total may not be eye-popping, Gardner is a pass-breakup machine. His career total of 33 is the third most among corners since he entered the league. If he’s getting close enough to defend passes, in theory, he should be catching some of them.
He knows this; he doesn’t shy away from it. Asked his goals for 2024, he said, “Get more picks and keep grinding for that Defensive Player of the Year [award].” He wants at least four or five interceptions.