Colts make blockbuster trade for CB Sauce Gardner; instant analysis

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INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time in Chris Ballard’s tenure as general manager, the Colts have decided to swing for the fences.

And it’s the biggest blockbuster of the NFL trade deadline.

Indianapolis is trading two first-round picks and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to the Jets for cornerback Sauce Gardner, a league source confirmed to IndyStar on Tuesday, adding a two-time first-team All-Pro who signed a four-year, $120.4 million contract extension this offseason to Lou Anarumo’s defense.

“New York, it’s been real,” Gardner wrote on his social media account shortly after the deal.

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Unlike most deadline deals, Gardner is a move for both the present and the future. Under the terms of Gardner’s extension, the No. 4 pick in the 2022 draft will cost Indianapolis only a prorated portion of his base salary, $625,000, in 2025.

Then the Colts have Gardner for the next five seasons at cap hits of $9.5 million in 2026, $20.9 million in 2027, $26.2 million in 2028 and $36.1 million in 2029 and 2030, making Gardner a cornerstone for the Indianapolis defense for the future.

The New York superstar also becomes the biggest move in Ballard’s ongoing quest to remake the Indianapolis cornerback position for Anarumo.

Frustrated by inconsistency and injury at cornerback the past couple of seasons, Ballard has repeatedly and aggressively attacked the position in 2025, trying to give Anarumo the experienced cornerbacks necessary to play his matchup-heavy, game plan-specific system.

Indianapolis signed former 49ers star Charvarius Ward to a three-year, $54 million deal in free agency, added veteran Corey Ballentine as depth in free agency and drafted Minnesota’s Justin Walley in the third round, aggressively addressing the position in the offseason.

When those plans went awry — Ballentine did not pan out, Walley suffered a torn ACL in training camp and returning third-year cornerbacks Jaylon Jones and JuJu Brents both missed most of training camp due to injuries — Ballard signed former Dolphins star Xavien Howard and traded for Vikings’ 2023 third-round pick Mekhi Blackmon, parting ways with Brents and 2024 part-time starter Samuel Womack in the process.

The hits kept coming. Howard retired after struggling in the first four games, and Ward suffered two concussions in a span of six weeks, the second coming in a freak collision with tight end Drew Ogletree during pregame warmups before the team’s win over Arizona. With Ward on injured reserve, Indianapolis had to turn to Blackmon and a combination of undrafted rookie Johnathan Edwards and street free agent Cameron Mitchell until the return of Jones, who missed seven games due to a recurring hamstring injury that knocked him out of the opener.

Gardner, still only 25 years old, is a haymaker of a move to put an end to all of that uncertainty.

Drafted with the No. 4 pick out of Cincinnati in 2022, Gardner became a superstar immediately, leading the NFL with 20 pass breakups and holding opponents to a 62.7 quarterback rating to win Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and a first-team All-Pro nod in his first NFL season.

Gardner was a first-team All-Pro again in 2023, limiting quarterbacks to 56.4% completions and 6.0 yards per attempt.

Frustrated by New York’s defensive shift in 2024, Gardner did not make the Pro Bowl in 2024 as he allowed 9.3 yards per attempt despite giving up just 56.9% completions on throws against him, and his numbers in 2025 have been disappointing: Gardner has allowed 57.1% completions and 8.95 yards per attempt in seven games before sitting out the Jets’ win over Cincinnati in week 8 with a concussion.

New York was on a bye last week, giving Gardner time to recover from his concussion and potentially putting him in play for Sunday’s game against the Falcons in Germany.

Indianapolis clearly had little reason to doubt that Gardner is the same player the Jets believed should get the biggest contract ever given to the position.

In eight previous seasons as the Colts’ general manager, Ballard made just one deal at the deadline, granting running back Nyheim Hines’ request for a trade in 2022 by sending him to Buffalo for Zack Moss and a pick.

But the 2025 season is clearly different.

Indianapolis is off to a 7-2 start, currently holds the No. 1 seed in the AFC and had one position that clearly could use an upgrade over everything else on the roster, considering the injuries that have hit the position.

With that in mind, the Colts have been aggressively looking for help on the trade market for weeks, trying to add a true difference-maker instead of the half-measures most teams add at the deadline.

Gardner is the difference-maker, the cornerback equivalent of superstar pass rusher Micah Parsons, who was dealt from the Cowboys to the Packers for two first-rounders and nose tackle Kenny Clark shortly before the beginning of the season.

Ballard swung big, sending his next two first-rounders and 2024 second-round wide receiver Adonai Mitchell, a supremely gifted player who had fallen out of favor in Indianapolis due to his inability to finish plays, a track record that came to a head when he fumbled a 76-yard touchdown out of the back of the end zone while trying to celebrate in Los Angeles earlier this season.

Mitchell had nine catches for 152 yards for the Colts in 2025, but he’d played just 24 snaps in five games since his Los Angeles gaffe, clearly losing the trust of the coaching staff.

Indianapolis likely believes Mitchell still has potential.

But the Colts are also the only NFL team with three receivers who have more than 500 yards this season — No. 1 target Michael Pittman Jr., rookie tight end Tyler Warren and deep threat Alec Pierce — and Indianapolis trusts veteran Ashton Dulin on the outside if either Pittman or Pierce went down with injury.

More importantly, Gardner transforms a Colts defense that ranked 26th in the NFL in yards allowed this season, giving up 244.8 yards per game. Indianapolis can get Ward back off injured reserve after the bye, and even if his recovery takes a little longer, the Colts now have the cornerbacks to play Anarumo’s pressure style, giving an inconsistent pass rush more time to get home.

Indianapolis is headed into the teeth of its schedule, a finishing stretch filled with big names at quarterback.

The Colts believe Gardner is the antidote.

The player who transforms this Indianapolis team from one of the NFL’s most surprising stories into a true Super Bowl contender in the AFC.

Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis Colts trade for CB Sauce Gardner: Analysis