When taking a look at the New York Jets roster, there are a lot of building blocks on both sides of the ball. This is a team loaded with young, star-caliber talent that doesn’t truly represent the team’s record during the 2023 season.
A lot has gone wrong for New York, namely the injury to quarterback Aaron Rodgers. His absence derailed any chance they had at being a competent team on offense, putting a lot of pressure on the defense.
Being on the field as much as the Jets’ defense was, knowing you weren’t going to get much help from the offense, was not easy. Despite that, there were some incredible performances put on by players on that side of the ball.
One of the players who have played at a high level all season is cornerback Sauce Gardner. The No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft out of Cincinnati won the Defensive Rookie of the Year award, earning Pro Bowl and All-Pro spots as well.
In Year 2, expectations were high for him and the defense and he responded with yet another incredible season. Gardner has cemented his status as arguably the best cornerback in the NFL, as teams have found virtually zero success when targeting him.
Per the Jets PR Account on X, formerly Twitter, since Week 3, Gardner has shut down whoever he has lined up against. He leads the NFL with only 48 targets and 79 yards after the catch allowed. Gardner is tied for first with 10.0 coverage snaps per target and the longest reception allowed is 32 yards.
In that time span, Gardner also ranks second in receptions allowed and passer rating allowed with 28 and 70.7, respectively. He is third in yards per reception allowed at 8.7. All of those stats are amongst cornerbacks with 500+ coverage snaps since Week 3.
Testing Gardner will normally result in nothing good for the opposing offense as he is as good as it gets at the position. Being able to take away one side of the field makes things much easier on the coaching staff when it comes to creating game plans as they only have to worry about two-thirds of the field.
Well on his way to a second Pro Bowl and All-Pro season, Gardner is a foundational piece for a strong Jets defense. For years the team sought out a replacement for Darrelle Revis and they have found him in Gardner.
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