Sauce Gardner Blog #3 – Welcome To Indianapolis
Bet you thought we wouldn't do it, huh? I bet you thought two separate Sauce Gardner to the Colts blogs was all Barstool Sports had in them on a Tuesday afternoon. Well think again, pal. That's one heater of a blog from Marty Mush to get the clicks. One Chris Klemmer blog from the perspective of a Jets' fan. And one final John Rich Colts' fan blog, which surely tens of people will be clamoring to get eyes on. Say what you want about the "sports" branch of Barstool Sports. But you can never say we didn't have The Great Sauce Gardner Trade of 2025 in a fucking headlock.
For a professional athlete, next to actually winning anything, being traded from a hopeless franchise to a championship contender mid-season has to be one of the best feelings in sports. Moving from New York City to Indianapolis might be a different story (depending on the type of person you are). But Sauce is from the midwest. He was born and raised in Detroit. Played college ball at Cincinnati. Lived the big city life in New York for a few years. Now he's back to the midwest, where he's more accustomed to playing winning football.
It appears as if the Colts believe they're merely a cornerback away from winning a Super Bowl. That's the only way you can read this trade. Sauce Gardner is a good cornerback. I think he could even find his way back to being great. But two first round picks (and Adonai Mitchell) is a lot of capital. Surely the Colts could have drafted themselves the equivalent of one Sauce Gardner with back-to-back years of first round picks. But those picks don't do the Colts a lick of good in the latter half of 2025. By NFL standards, this is as win-now of a move as a team can make.
Which I think you have to appreciate as a Colts fan. I would typically be in favor of a more long-term approach to building a franchise. But the way the Colts are winning right now, with Daniel Jones blowing everyone's expectations out of the water, the Colts would be fools to not consider that they may have caught lightning in a bottle here. NFL franchises will go decades without having a shot at a Super Bowl. If the Colts think this is the team, I can't be mad at GM Chris Ballard Jim Irsay's sideline-lurking, big-hat-wearing daughter Carlie (who's apparently is in charge of everything now) for taking this type of swing.
As a non-Jets fan who doesn't necessarily have NYJ on his short list of teams to throw on Sunday Ticket, I haven't watched much Sauce this year. But based on what I've seen from the Jets fans I follow online, I've been under the impression that Sauce Gardner has become trash at football. That ever since he picked up a golf club a couple years back (even though he's since given it up), his game has gone to shit. Jets fan Chris Klemmer echos that sentiment.
Twitter is currently crawling with Sauce Gardner videos of this particular ilk.
But to everybody who says Sauce Gardner is an old washed up traffic cone, how do you explain this graph that some random Yankees fan tweeted out?
Last I checked, being in the top right corner of PFF graphs I don't fully understand is a good thing. And if you still think Sauce Gardner stinks out loud, then explain to me these @NextGenStats on Tight Window % Forced.
How bout them apples? As I've come to understand, the sports nerds have proven that the NFL is primarily played on a spreadsheet nowadays. On paper, Sauce Gardner looks like a pretty damn good addition to the Colts secondary.
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And now that Sauce Gardner is back on a winning team with his old college teammate & multi-year practice rival Alec Pierce…
Maybe a familiar face and a winning football team puts a pep in Sauce's step. Maybe the Indianapolis Colts will get themselves a rejuvenated Sauce. A Sauce who up until now, has only been beaten down by a depressing franchise he's been trying to escape from since the moment he was drafted.
Unless Sauce Gardner proves to be some crazy locker room cancer, I fail to see how this could be a bad thing for the 2025 version of the Indianapolis Colts.
Now if you're a Jets fan, the two first round picks are a great get. But they gotta be a little worried about Adonai Mitchell. You gotta be weary that Adonai Mitchell is one big catastrophic Jets moment waiting to happen. That Adonai Mitchell has the ability to singlehandedly negate any good that may come from whoever the Jets draft with those brand new first round picks.
Mitchell has a ton of talent. Enough talent where that if you're the Jets, and your passing game is abysmal, and this is who your not-especially-good-at-passing quarterback has to throw the ball to…
You're obviously going to play him. He's almost certainly going to make some great plays for your team. I honestly felt like Mitchell got a bad wrap in Indianapolis. He has so much potential. Had the Colts stuck with him a little longer, I thought there was a decent chance he'd find a way to remove his head from his ass and wind up being one of their top options. The man had his moments.
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I'm cheering for him. But boy, oh boy… does he ever fit the mold of what the lowly New York Jets have become over the last decade. He can be frustrating as hell. If there was a way I could bet on Adonai Mitchell to cost the Jets a football game by the end of the season, I'd certainly take a flier on it. Although at this point, the Jets would probably welcome it. Maybe acquiring Adonai Mitchell for the home stretch 2026 is all part of Woody Johnson's master plan to secure next year's #1 pick.
Anyways, welcome to Indianapolis, Sauce! You're gonna love it here. It's a shame you gave up golf. You've got Crooked Stick right there in Carmel, Indiana. The Pfau Course down the road in Bloomington is one of the premier university courses in the country. But if you can help the Colts win the Super Bowl this year, then maybe you justify sneaking in a round or two in the off-season. Let this be your motivation to get the job done.