Jets’ Sauce Gardner continues to face NFL’s most laughable disrespect

The disrespect for Sauce Gardner has officially hit comical levels as the New York Jets approach their Week 1 opener this Sunday. The Gardner hate train is quickly becoming the NFL's most laughable narrative.

The Jets rewarded Gardner with a historic four-year, $120.4 million extension earlier this summer that made him the highest-paid cornerback in league history. It was a well-deserved honor for a player whose on-field performance supports the fact that he's one of the most valuable non-QBs in the sport.

But clearly not everyone agrees. In a recent article from Bleacher Report's Brad Gagnon, Gardner was named to the fictional "NFL All-Overpaid Team" as his position group's representative.

The disrespect doesn’t stop there. Gardner was left off this year’s NFL Top 100 list entirely. Yes, you read that right — players around the league apparently don’t believe Gardner, who ranked inside the top 40 in each of the last two seasons, even deserves a spot among the top 100 players in football.

Sauce Gardner is the most disrespected player in the entire NFL

How do you even begin to fix a narrative that’s taken on a life of its own? How do you correct a false, social media–driven perception that has no basis in reality? The only way, I suppose, is with facts — hard, undeniable facts that prove just how absurd this disrespect has become.

Since entering the league in 2022, Sauce Gardner has been the single most dominant cornerback in football. He owns a league-best 91.9 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus across the last three seasons, alongside a league-low 0.60 yards per coverage snap in that span.

He’s also one of only three defensive players in NFL history to earn first-team All-Pro honors in each of his first two seasons, alongside generational talents like Lawrence Taylor and Micah Parsons.

This isn’t to say Gardner is flawless. The multi-time All-Pro is coming off what was admittedly his worst NFL season, yet even that “down year” was still better than what nearly every other cornerback in football has to offer.

Gardner allowed just 25 catches in 2024, the fewest among all qualified cornerbacks. The tackling issues are a concern, and it’s fair to criticize his lack of takeaways over the first three years of his career, but when it comes to pure cover skills, you probably won’t find anyone in the NFL better than Gardner.

Players like Bo Nix, Tua Tagovailoa, Joe Mixon, Kyren Williams, former Jets linebacker Frankie Luvu, Patrick Queen, Jerry Jeudy, Ladd McConkey, etc., all managed to make that top-100 player list. There's no sustainable argument to be made that any of those players are better at the spot of football than Gardner.

Sauce Gardner has become the NFL’s most disrespected player. The social media narratives have somehow infiltrated real-life analysis, diminishing what has been elite (and arguably historic!) cornerback play to start his NFL career.

Enough is enough.

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