The New York Jets shocked the NFL landscape on Tuesday afternoon, as they dealt star cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts just hours before the NFL Trade Deadline. While the Jets are one of the worst teams in football and thus most players on their roster ought to be available for the right price, they literally just signed Gardner to an extension. New York made Gardner the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL as of mid-July, inking him to a four-year, $120.4 million deal. That commitment was meant to mark the beginning of a new era of Jets football. That era lasted all of four months.
There are some deals that are tough to turn down. The Jets received two first-round picks and wide receiver AD Mitchell in exchange for Gardner, who is among the top cornerbacks in all of football in the middle of his prime. Those picks are in back-to-back drafts, and could prove valuable if the Jets try to trade up for a quarterback. Justin Fields ain't cutting it.
That being said, trading Gardner is a gigantic step backward. The Jets won't be competitive for the next few years barring an unexpected turnaround from Aaron Glenn's group, but Sauce was under contract for the next five years. Trading him away for the chance of acquiring a player like him at a later date is...odd to say the least. Gardner was just as surprised as the rest of us.
New York it's been real💚
— SAUCE GARDNER (@iamSauceGardner) November 4, 2025
Sauce Gardner was stunned by the trade, per his brother and agent Allante Gardner, who told me he learned of the deal around 12:15 in a call from the #Jets. They had no inkling before that, he said. Sauce has no negative feelings toward the Jets; he understands it's a business,…
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) November 4, 2025
Jets fans are all too familiar with this level of heartbreak
The Jets have been here before. As a kid from New Jersey, I am not a Jets fan, but am familiar with their way of thinking. This is a fanbase that has been through hell and back for much of the last decade. They are well aware their team is a laughing stock from the top-down. The Jets haven't won a Super Bowl since 1969 when Joe Namath was their starting QB.
While this team wasn't on track to achieve that goal with Gardner under contract, trading him away makes them a significantly worse team in the interim. Again, Gardner was under contract for the next five-plus years. Do the Jets really think they weren't going to be competitive in that timeframe, and that keeping a player of Gardner's caliber wouldn't help them do so?
Whether it be lackluster ownership decisions, or a front office that has no real idea what it's doing year after year, it's tough to believe the Jets will make the most of the picks they received in return for Gardner at this juncture.
So, why did the Jets trade Sauce Gardner?
We graded the Gardner trade as a C+ from the Jets perspective. Sure, the Colts gave up a lot for him, but they also have one of the best records in football and their competitive timeline won't last all that long. For Indy, trading a couple of picks that will likely come in the early-20's at worst for Gardner is a risk worth taking, and losing Mitchell won't impact their receiving corps much in the short term, either.
"But while it's undoubtedly an overpay, I also can't bring myself to fully hate this for Indy. They've been the class of the conference so far this year, Sunday's loss at Pittsburgh notwithstanding, and corner stood as the most obvious weakness Charvarius Ward still on the mend from a concussion. Gardner's production has dipped of late, but that feels like as much a product of his surroundings as anything else," FanSided's Chris Landers wrote in response to the trade.
Gardner wasn't expected to be made available at the deadline, but now that he's been acquired he's likely the best player to be dealt. The Jets, meanwhile, made a play for the future. This trade shows a surprising amount of faith in their front office and their ability to draft talent in the latter half of the first round. We'll see if it pays off for them.