The New York Jets are trading two-time first-team All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts, the team confirmed Tuesday hours before the NFL’s trade deadline.
The Jets will receive 2026 and 2027 first-round picks and wide receiver AD Mitchell in return. After trading three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys later in the afternoon, the Jets now have five first-round picks to use over the next two drafts.
Advertisement
Moments before the news broke, the 25-year-old Gardner thanked the city he’s called home the first three-plus seasons of his NFL career.
“New York it’s been real,” he wrote in a post on X that included a green heart emoji.
In July, Gardner signed a four-year, $120.4 million deal that made him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history. At the time, Gardner called it “only the beginning.”
[Get more Jets news: New York team feed]
Less than four months later, the No. 4 overall pick from the 2022 draft is already embarking on a new era in Indianapolis with a 7-2 Colts team.
“Having the opportunity to acquire a talented player like Sauce Gardner was one we did not want to pass on,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said Tuesday in a statement. “He was a player that we scouted heavily coming out of college, and there’s a reason he was the fourth overall pick.
“Sauce is a proven cornerback. His skill and competitive nature will elevate everyone’s play on the defensive unit. We’re thrilled he’s a Colt. On the same note, AD Mitchell is a great person and a great player. We believe he will have success in New York, and we wish him the best as he enters the next chapter of his career.”
Advertisement
The Jets, currently 1-7 in their first year under general manager Darren Mougey and head coach Aaron Glenn, are gaining some key draft capital and a wideout in Mitchell who was a 2024 second-round pick but was used sparingly by the Colts after costing them a pair of touchdowns in a Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Since that game, during which Mitchell dropped the ball short of the goal line and committed a detrimental holding penalty, he has played just 24 offensive snaps, according to PFF.
The former Georgia and Texas receiver posted 32 receptions and 464 receiving yards in his 25 career games with the Colts. He’s still searching for his first NFL touchdown.
Gardner, though, is the crown jewel of the trade. He’s headed to a Colts team that has its eyes on a potential Super Bowl run.
Gardner hit the ground running when he reached the league in 2022. That season, he picked up where he left off as an All-American at Cincinnati, winning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and being named first-team All-Pro.
Advertisement
In 2023, Gardner became the only cornerback since the 1970 merger to earn first-team All-Pro honors in each of his first two seasons in the league.
While he didn’t make an All-Pro team or the Pro Bowl in 2024, he went another season allowing only one touchdown reception, per PFF.
[Get more Colts news: Indianapolis team feed]
Opponents often stay away from the 6-foot-3, 190-pound corner. Gardner has been targeted just 22 times in seven games this season, according to PFF, which has him down for allowing just 10 catches for 170 receiving yards and two touchdowns during the 2025 campaign. He missed the Jets’ Week 8 win over the Cincinnati Bengals with a concussion, but he still leaves New York tied for the team lead with six passes defended. He had a league-high 20 of those as a rookie.
Advertisement
When the Jets inked him to his lucrative, four-year extension this summer, it appeared they were making him a pillar of their future.
Eight games into this season, they’re headed in a different direction.
