NY Jets coaches challenging Sauce Gardner to fix one key part of his game

It's difficult to put into words just how historically great NY Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner has been through the first two seasons of his career. He's nearly the perfect cornerback. Key word: nearly.

While Gardner became the first cornerback in NFL history to earn consecutive first-team All-Pro honors to begin his career and has the coverage numbers to back it up, there is still one element of his game that's rightfully criticized.

No, it's not the lazy narrative about him being penalty-prone. Gardner was penalized just five times in 2023, well below average for his position. That isn't the weakness we're talking about.

Instead, if you were to pick one hole in Gardner's game it would be his lack of interceptions. Gardner's ball skills aren't an issue — he just hasn't been able to rack up turnovers to this point. The 23-year-old has intercepted just two passes in his NFL career, both coming as a rookie in 2022.

The Jets are aware of that limitation and are challenging him to improve upon it. Jets head coach Robert Saleh spoke to reporters following Saturday's practice and issued a new challenge to Gardner this season: "Catch the ball."

The NY Jets want Sauce Gardner to 'catch the ball'

Part of the reason for Gardner's lack of turnovers is, of course, his overall lack of targets. Only Jaylon Johnson of the Chicago Bears was targeted fewer times than Gardner among qualified cornerbacks in 2023. It's hard to rack up interceptions if the ball isn't being thrown your way.

But there's more to it than that. Gardner was credited by Pro Football Focus with three dropped interceptions in 2023. Only one cornerback in the NFL dropped more potential interceptions last season than the Jets' star. That shows there's obvious room for improvement.

This is actually an issue that plagued the Jets as a whole in 2023. Jets defenders were credited with a whopping 11 dropped interceptions last season, with Gardner and C.J. Mosley (four) serving as the biggest culprits.

The Jets still ranked eighth in the NFL in takeaways, but they could've ranked close to the top if they were able to capitalize on more of those opportunities. Gardner specifically has some work to do in that area.

His lack of turnovers is one of the most notable arguments his critics use against him when discussing the best cornerbacks in the NFL. Of course, interceptions aren't the mark of a shutdown cornerback, but they sure look nice on the box score.

Sauce Gardner is already the best cornerback in the NFL by pretty much every statistical measure. If he can add interceptions to his resume, the tiresome debate might finally be put to rest.