Blockbuster trade didn’t solve AFC contender’s actual glaring problem
- Despite Gardner’s debut, the Colts narrowly defeated the Atlanta Falcons 31-25 in overtime, relying on running back Jonathan Taylor.
- The trade signals the Colts are betting on their current roster, which may lead to a large contract extension for quarterback Daniel Jones.
- History suggests a lockdown cornerback alone is not enough to guarantee Super Bowl success, which typically depends on elite quarterback play.
Having a lockdown cornerback in the NFL is basically the same as having a lockdown left tackle – awfully nice but hardly predictive of Super Bowl success.
Maybe the Indianapolis Colts, who forked over two first-round draft picks to the New York Jets for corner Sauce Gardner ahead of the league’s Nov. 4 trade deadline can disprove that. But Sunday’s (very) early returns suggest otherwise.
The Colts are now 8-2 and back atop the overall AFC standings after escaping the Atlanta Falcons 31-25 in overtime in the first-ever regular-season game staged in Berlin. After a crash course into his new playbook, Gardner, who hasn’t exactly been airtight in coverage after earning All-Pro honors in 2022 and ’23, seemed to do fine in his Indy debut.
He was regularly deployed to guard Drake London, Atlanta’s top receiver and a guy coming off a three-touchdown performance at New England in Week 9. London wound up with six catches for 104 yards Sunday. However, per Next Gen Stats, he only secured two of four targets for 26 yards against Gardner, who nearly registered his first pick of 2025 while covering him. London did snare a TD on a play that Gardner was either schemed out of or made a bad decision on.
“I mean, man, I’m going to be honest; it was like a tough week for me, like mentally, just trying to learn all the plays,” said Gardner.
“I started watching tape on Cleveland, then already had to switch and watch tape on Atlanta, and that’s besides having to hurry up and fly to Indy and then hurry up and fly to Berlin.”
London also beat Gardner, who slipped, on a two-point conversion inside of two minutes to go that gave Atlanta a three-point lead before Indianapolis tied the game in the final minute of regulation.
“I was sick after that,” said Gardner, who vowed to tighten things up in overtime, when the Falcons had -8 yards on five plays.
But that’s really the rub.
Gardner couldn’t much help a team that was so often abysmal in gotta-have-it situations, the Colts 4-for-16 combined on third and fourth downs. He couldn’t bolster the blocking of an offensive line that struggled in key spots and surrendered seven sacks. He wasn’t able to limit the mistakes of quarterback Daniel Jones, who turned the ball over twice – giving him seven giveaways over the past two games (after committing three in the first eight) in a frightening reversion to the version of himself whom New York Giants fans were so familiar with. Defensively, the Colts seemed to miss injured defensive tackle DeForest Buckner much more than they needed whatever Gardner gave them Sunday.
Ultimately, running back Jonathan Taylor, a legit MVP candidate, saved the day with 244 rushing yards and three touchdowns, including an 83-yarder in the fourth quarter and the decisive score from 8 yards out in overtime.
“They go as Jonathan Taylor goes,’ said NFL Network analyst and former Pro Bowler Gerald McCoy.
‘You take away JT, you put it in Daniel Jones’ hands – we don’t know what’ll happen.”
Yup.
As pleasant a surprise as the conference-leading Colts have generally been this season – I certainly didn’t foresee this level of success unfolding – general manager Chris Ballard has now made a bed with what could be a mattress on a short shelf life. By acquiring Gardner for the hefty price he paid, Ballard has bet big on his team – and GMs should do that when they feel like their roster is Super Bowl-caliber or close to it. Gardner is a player who would need to earn his stripes in the playoffs against quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson – but he’s likely not going to make that much of a difference immediately in what’s typically an eminently winnable AFC South.
By extension, Ballard is also obligated to re-sign Jones, who’s playing on a one-year deal, to a sizable contract extension – the same mistake the Giants made after the 2022 season and ultimately regretted. Yet given Ballard’s next Round 1 selection is scheduled for the 2028 draft and 2023 first-rounder Anthony Richardson is just about relegated to bust status (at least in Indianapolis), the GM now has little recourse but to hope Jones’ marriage with head coach Shane Steichen is built to last in a way the union to Brian Daboll wasn’t.
The Colts – their losses this season have come against the division-leading Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers – have fattened their record this season against the likes of the Miami Dolphins, Las Vegas Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, Tennessee Titans (twice) and now the Jekyll-and-Hyde Falcons, who fell to 3-6 Sunday and have been manhandled this season by the Dolphins and the Carolina Panthers.
Moving forward, with potential future battles against Mahomes, Jackson, Allen, et al. looming, the Colts are banking that Jones can be a rarity – a largely ordinary QB1 like Nick Foles or Joe Flacco who can break through with a postseason hot streak that leads to Lombardi glory. If that happens, then Gardner will join a list that includes Stephon Gilmore, Darrelle Revis, Jalen Ramsey and even the incomparable Deion Sanders – topflight corners who couldn’t lead their original teams to success but subsequently won rings with squads largely propelled by Hall of Fame-caliber quarterbacks.
Barring that?
After betting the farm on Gardner and eventually Jones, Ballard’s years-long quarterback conundrum could ultimately be his undoing … perhaps thanks in part to his new cornerback.
