Trent McDuffie trade makes Jets’ Sauce Gardner deal look like highway robbery

Darren Mougey just sat back in his chair and laughed.

Charlie Baduini

Indianapolis Colts cornerback Sauce Gardner / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

One of the first blockbuster deals of the NFL offseason went down Wednesday morning, with NFL Network's Ian Rapoport breaking the news that the Kansas City Chiefs were shipping All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams.

Of course, the New York Jets' Jermaine Johnson trade was the real first trade of the 2026 offseason, but all due respect to Johnson and T'Vondre Sweat, neither player is on the same caliber as McDuffie.

The Rams are sending their 2026 first-round pick (No. 29 overall), their 2026 fifth and sixth-round picks, and a 2027 third-round pick to facilitate the deal. It's the second time in the last five months that a recent All-Pro cornerback was traded.

As Jets fans undoubtedly remember, New York shipped Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts at the 2025 trade deadline, in a deal that netted them two first-round picks and a high-upside wide receiver in Adonai Mitchell.

When you take a step back and look at the return each team got for their All-Pro cornerbacks, you may notice one of these trades is not like the other.

The Jets fleeced the Colts in the Sauce Gardner trade

Despite the Chiefs getting a larger total of draft picks in the McDuffie deal, it can't be denied that the return the Jets got for Gardner blows their deal out of the water.

Two first-round picks and one of the fastest wide receivers in football is a heck of a package for the Jets, and it can't be denied just how much value New York got in the trade.

Comparing the two deals, the Rams general manager, Les Snead, is likely pleased with the value he got on this deal, despite McDuffie's down year in 2025.

In all fairness, Gardner and McDuffie aren't exactly the same player. The Jets' former No. 4 overall pick is strictly an outside cornerback and is best utilized in coverage.

McDuffie, on the other hand, had his best days when he was playing out of the slot. His two All-Pro seasons saw him play mostly as the nickel cornerback. His struggles this season were likely due to the fact that the Chiefs had him playing on the outside more often.

Regardless, the stark contrast in the trades for two All-Pro corners can't be ignored, and once again reinforces that the Jets may have themselves a savvy trader in general manager Darren Mougey.

Charlie Baduini

Charlie Baduini covers the New York Jets as a site expert for The Jet Press and FanSided. He is a sports journalist based in Northern New Jersey with a wide variety of sports reporting experience in print and broadcast journalism. Baduini’s byline can also be seen on Heavy and The Sporting News, where he covers several teams across the NFL and NBA. His work has been featured in Heavy, Athlon Sports, The Sporting News, Yahoo Sports, MSN, and Yardbarker. He also serves as a seasonal intern for ESPN, working as a production assistant for the Heisman Trophy Ceremony every year since 2022. Baduini has been a Jets fan for as long as he can remember, with his family's fandom dating back to the 1960s when his grandfather, Louis, became a season ticket holder. His family has since held on to the tickets to this day. He is an avid fan of the New York Knicks and New York Mets.