PFF's newest ranking proves that Sauce Gardner will thrive under Aaron Glenn

While New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner is one of the best defensive players in the game at any position, many keyboward warriors out there have made a whole cottage industry of decrying him as a poor player despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. There is reason for optimism that new head coach Aaron Glenn can help Gardner reassert his dominance in 2025.

Pro Football Focus developed a new metric to measure cornerback physicality, showing the number of times that a cornerback made contact with a receiver while running his route. Gardner, who ranked ninth in this metric last season, is now being coached by someone who preaches contact from his DBs.

Two former Glenn disciples in Kindle Vildor and new Patriots signing Carlton Davis ranked in the top six across the entire NFL in this metric last season, with Vildor leading the league after contacting a receiver on 50% of his routes.

When pairing Gardner with this style of defense and Glenn's aggressive coaching, the Jets might get the best version of Sauce yet in 2025.

PFF ranking shows Jets CB Sauce Gardner will thrive under Aaron Glenn

Criticism over Gardner's play is not only without merit, but it is the diametric opposite of the truth. Gardner's 36% forced incompletion rate on physical coverage reps was the best ranking in the league, while his 0.57 yards per coverage snap was the sixth-best in the league. Keep in mind that 2024 was the "down year" for Gardner.

Glenn will likely try to tweak Gardner's game to make him even better in 2024. Primarily, Gardner does genuinely need to improve his tackling ability, as this is his big weakness in his game. While he may never hit like Ronnie Lott, Sauce did make some improvements in this area at the end of the year.

Second, Gardner may end up shadowing the best opposing wide receiver more in 2025, as Robert Saleh's scheme kept him on one side of the field. While this may impact his coverage stats to some degree, Gardner has consistently shut down some of the best receivers in the game in the past.

A former defensive back with the Jets, Glenn is an unknown as a head coach. However, if he excels anywhere as an instructor, it's working with cornerbacks. Gardner is still an elite cornerback, but some tutelage from Glenn could help him reclaim the title of CB1 across the NFL.

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