According to PFF’s John Kosko (subscription), recently acquired Indianapolis Colts All-Pro Sauce Gardner remains ‘the gold standard at starting cornerback’—after his Week 10 debut in Germany for the Horseshoe:
Sauce Gardner remains the gold standard: Gardner’s 28% forced incompletion rate and 44% completion rate allowed both rank third in the NFL. His 13.8% open-target rate is the second best in the league, while his 73.74% lockdown rate leads all cornerbacks.
Further, per PFF, Gardner leads the league in their advanced coverage grade (5.545). For comparison’s sake, the Philadelphia Eagles Cooper DeJean (5.507) ranks 2nd best, while the Colts very own Charvarius Ward (3.379) ranks 16th respectively:
“We grade every coverage defender’s ability to prevent separation, whether they are targeted on the play or not. These rankings utilize play-level normalization and expectation adjustments. After all, matching up with a receiver is more difficult than covering a running back, and playing man coverage is typically more difficult than matching in a zone.”
Obviously, the Colts demonstrated their clear conviction for Gardner’s coverage game already, trading two future first round picks and young wideout AD Mitchell just ahead of the NFL’s trade deadline a few weeks ago.
It’s clear that Indianapolis believes Gardner can not only significantly improve their once depleted cornerback position, but still only 25-years-old, also provide them a lockdown CB1 for the foreseeable future (and over the next two years, at a very cost efficient salary at that).
The Colts are hoping that Gardner can be the ‘Championship move’ this year that can help catapult this upstart AFC squad at 8-2 into surprising Super Bowl contention.
Something that we all would’ve reasonably laughed at to begin the year.
Not to mention, that a change of scenery to a potential deep playoff contender could help him regain his prior NFL First-Team All-Pro form with the New York Jets—although if you ask PFF, maybe he never really lost it at all.
It’s interesting though because while Gardner currently ranks as PFF’s 15th best cornerback with a +72.4 overall grade, he also has their highest advanced coverage grade—so the two don’t exactly coincide in their positional rankings.
For perspective, even despite his second concussion and missing extended time, Ward still ranks as their 2nd highest graded cornerback with a +83.4 overall grade respectively.
At any rate, Gardner appears poised to be a lockdown cornerback in Indianapolis for many years to come.
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