While the NY Jets may have come out at the wrong end of their season opener to the San Francisco 49ers, the exceptional play of Sauce Gardner is not in question. Gardner has been so good in the last few games that even catching on him in a game is considered an anomaly. The best corner in the NFL keeps getting better.
As part of Gardner's self-imposed mission to travel along with the opposing team's best receiver instead of staying on one side of the field all game long, the Jets divided his snaps between right cornerback and left cornerback at a nearly two-thirds split. This left him free to take on Brandon Aiyuk.
Aiyuk, who dropped a touchdown pass in this game, mustered just two catches for 28 yards in this contest. This was due, in large part, to Gardner, who was targeted just once (he broke the pass up) and didn't allow a single catch during his 2024 debut. Aiyuk has been humbled by the experience.
Aiyuk said that he didn't even start watching film of himself until Wednesday, saying he was "a little scared" to watch how he performed in his first game after signing a new contract. Aiyuk struggling is nothing new, as the run Gardner is on is one of the best in NFL history.
NY Jets CB Sauce Gardner is CB1 after Brandon Aiyuk's humbling comments
In his last nine games, Gardner has allowed a whopping six catches. Six! It's been almost a full calendar year since he allowed more than two catches in a game (Week 5 of 2023), and it has been a full calendar year since he allowed more than 35 yards against him in a game.
Gardner has just one game in his last seven in which he has allowed more than one catch and has gone three consecutive games without allowing a catch.
These numbers are so dominant that the gap between him and the second-best cornerback in the league is starting to turn into Aaron Donald levels of distance.
While the Jets' linebackers were targeted frequently by Kyle Shanahan, and D.J. Reed is known to occasionally put up a bit of a stinker a few times a year, the play of Gardner has been so elite that New York will always have one of the better pass defenses in the league. No other cornerback even comes close to this level of impact.
