Gang Green Nation
The Jets go two for two extending their top ten picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.
1. Everything I said yesterday about Garrett Wilson’s contract extension applies to Sauce Gardner’s deal.
I have said it before. I will say it again. Drafting and developing talent are the most critical steps of building a consistently good NFL team. But drafting and developing are not helpful unless you retain that talent. Otherwise you’re just training good players for the other 31 teams. This week the Jets have ensured that their two best Draft picks in recent memory will spend their prime years in New York. Keeping these guys was a huge step towards putting this franchise on the path back to respectability.
2. Sauce Gardner is the most important player for the Jets on defense.
The Jets are moving from Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich’s defensive scheme to Aaron Glenn’s. The new system is going to highlight Gardner’s talents in a way the old one did not. With Glenn in town, we can expect plenty of blitzing and man coverage.
There were moments where Saleh and Ulbrich would get aggressive, but their preference was usually to rush four and play with seven men in coverage. That type of approach makes the defensive linemen the most important players on a defense since they won’t have any help getting to the quarterback.
In Glenn’s system, blitzers will assist in the pass rush. That leaves less help for coverage players in the back of the defense, which means you need players who can hold up one on one. Gardner’s game is suited well for this, and he has the talent to hold up against the very best receivers in the league. Keeping him around was a no brainer.
3. This record setting contract is a bargain in some ways.
It’s surprising to say that a record setting contract could be a bargain, but I think you could very well make the case that the Gardner extension is.
There is a simple question I like to ask when I assess a player’s value. How valuable are the players he is supposed to neutralize?
Sauce Gardner is supposed to neutralize big play wide receivers. I think we know those guys are plenty valuable. The paychecks of the top receivers in the league would certainly suggest as much.
Ja’Marr Chase has an annual salary of over $40 million. Justin Jefferson’s salary is $35 million. CeeDee Lamb is at $34 million. DK Metcalf is just under $33 million. AJ Brown makes $32 million. And as you probably know, Garrett Wilson just got $32.5 million.
Sauce Gardner just became the highest paid cornerback in the league with a $30.1 million salary.
These game changing receivers have salaries in excess of $30 million, while the guy who can erase them makes less. I don’t want to make this sound like a franchise changing level of savings, but this does sound like a bargain to me.
If anything, top flight cornerbacks should...
