NY Jets: Comparing Sauce Gardner’s 2-year start to other elite CBs

Is Sauce Gardner off to the best start of any young cornerback in recent NFL history?

The 2023 season is finally over and while the New York Jets disappointed their fans once again, several Jets players were still excellent despite the circumstances.

Perhaps none shined brighter than Sauce Gardner, who has earned his second Pro Bowl invite and PFF first-team All-Pro in two seasons.

Gardner had sky-high expectations coming into his rookie season. He dominated in college, not allowing a single touchdown over three years, and was drafted a fourth overall to a franchise that expected him to be the second coming of Darrelle Revis.

As high as the expectations were, Sauce has exceeded them through two years. He is one of only six defenders since 1970 to be a Pro Bowl starter in each of their first two seasons. Sauce was also the first rookie cornerback to be a first-team All-Pro in over 40 years and has a chance to be first-team again in 2023.

While the accolades are excellent, how does Sauce’s production compare to the other top young cornerbacks the NFL has seen in the last decade?

For this analysis, I looked at the first two seasons of the following highly drafted star cornerbacks:

• Jalen Ramsey (2016, 5th overall)
• Marson Lattimore (2017, 11th overall)
• Jaire Alexander (2018, 18th overall)
• A.J. Terrell (2020, 16th overall)
• Pat Surtain II (2021, 9th overall)
• Sauce Gardner (2022, 4th overall)

These six cornerbacks have consistently been considered in the top 5 to 15 players at their respective positions early in their careers. Ramsey (first-team), Surtain (first-team), and Terrell (second-team) were All-Pros in their second seasons. While Sauce leads in the accolades, how does he compare statistically to the above players?

I used two sources for this analysis. The first is Pro Football Focus, which provides advanced stats on all the players listed. The second is Pro Football Reference, which provided advanced stats for the players drafted after 2018. Both sources are well respected but frequently come to different conclusions so analyzing both gives us a fair measure.

Sauce vs. The World

Using statistics from Pro Football Focus, I broke down several key statistics. First I will compare their total numbers for their careers and then on a per-snap/per-target basis.

Here is how each cornerback ranks in their production across their first two seasons.

Yards Allowed

1. Sauce Gardner: 595
2. Pat Surtain II: 977
3. A.J. Terrell: 1101
4. Marshon Lattimore: 1424
5. Jalen Ramsey: 1458
6. Jaire Alexander: 1504

Touchdowns

1. Sauce Gardner: 2
2. Marshon Lattimore: 2
3. Jalen Ramsey: 6
4. Jaire Alexander: 7
5. Pat Surtain II: 7
6. A.J. Terrell: 8

Interceptions

1. Marshon Lattimore: 9
2. Jalen Ramsey: 7
3. Pat Surtain II: 6
4. A.J. Terrell: 4
5. Jaire Alexander: 3
6. Sauce Gardner: 2

Pass Breakups

1. Sauce Gardner: 24
2. Jalen Ramsey: 23
3. A.J. Terrell: 20
4. Jaire Alexander: 20
5. Marshon Lattimore: 19
6. Pat Surtain II: 15

Receptions Allowed

1. Sauce Gardner: 62
2. Pat Surtain II: 90
3. Marson Lattimore: 97
4. A.J. Terrell: 100
5. Jaire Alexander: 110
6. Jalen Ramsey: 111

Defensive Stops

1. Jalen Ramsey: 43
2. A.J. Terrell: 40
3. Sauce Gardner: 36
4. Jaire Alexander: 31
5. Marshon Lattimore: 24
6. Pat Surtain: 19

From just looking at the total numbers, Sauce is first or tied for first in four of the six categories shown. The only category that Sauce ranks last in is interceptions, as he’s only snagged two over his career.

While the total statistics show Sauce has been great to start his career, it goes to the next level when you break it down on a per snap or target basis.

Yards/Snap

1. Sauce Gardner: 0.49
2. Pat Surtain II: 0.81
3. A.J. Terrell: 0.93
4. Jalen Ramsey: 1.04
5. Marshon Lattimore: 1.12
6. Jaire Alexander: 1.30

Yards/Target

1. Sauce Gardner: 4.80
2. Pat Surtain II: 6.30
3. A.J. Terrell: 6.55
4. Jalen Ramsey: 7.01
5. Jaire Alexander: 8.26
6. Marshon Lattimore: 8.68

Targets/Snap

1. Sauce Gardner: 10.12%
2. Pat Surtain II: 12.82%
3. Marson Lattimore: 12.86%
4. A.J. Terrell: 14.26%
5. Jalen Ramsey: 14.84%
6. Jaire Alexander: 15.76%

YAC/Reception

1. Sauce Gardner: 3.13
2. Pat Surtain II: 3.29
3. Jalen Ramsey: 3.69
4. A.J. Terrell: 3.94
5. Jaire Alexander: 4.29
6. Marshon Lattimore: 4.78

TD%

1. Marshon Lattimore: 1.22%
2. Sauce Gardner: 1.61%
3. Jalen Ramsey: 2.88%
4. Jaire Alexander: 3.85%
5. Pat Surtain II: 4.52%
6. A.J. Terrell: 4.76%

INT%

1. Marshon Lattimore: 5.49%
2. Pat Surtain II: 3.87%
3. Jalen Ramsey: 3.37%
4. A.J. Terrell: 2.38%
5. Jaire Alexander: 1.65%
6. Sauce Gardner: 1.61%

Completion %

1. Sauce Gardner: 50.0%
2. Jalen Ramsey: 53.4%
3. Pat Surtain II: 58.1%
4. Marson Lattimore: 59.1%
5. A.J. Terrell: 59.5%
6. Jaire Alexander: 60.4%

Passer Rating

1. Sauce Gardner: 62.4
2. Marson Lattimore: 68.8
3. Jalen Ramsey: 71.4
4. Pat Surtain II: 75.7
5. A.J. Terrell: 84.9
6. Jaire Alexander: 92.8

Sauce dominates once again as he’s first in six of the eight categories and only finishes outside of the top two for interceptions once again. It’s not just that Sauce is leading, but he is dominating in almost every category. The biggest difference comes down to yardage, as Sauce has allowed almost half the yardage of the other cornerbacks.

However, there are some differences between Pro Football Focus’ data and Pro Football Reference’s. Pro Football Reference provides advanced coverage statistics starting in 2018 so only Jaire Alexander, A.J. Terrell, Pat Surtain II, and Sauce Gardner are used in this analysis.

Yards/Snap

1. Sauce Gardner: 0.66
2. Pat Surtain II: 0.84
3. A.J. Terrell: 1.15
4. Jaire Alexander: 1.43

Yards/Target

1. Sauce Gardner: 5.60
2. Pat Surtain II: 5.86
3. A.J. Terrell: 7.05
4. Jaire Alexander: 8.20

Targets/Snap

1. Sauce Gardner: 11.80%
2. Pat Surtain II: 14.31%
3. A.J. Terrell: 16.30%
4. Jaire Alexander: 17.40%

YAC/Reception

1. Pat Surtain II: 2.88
2. Sauce Gardner: 4.40
3. A.J. Terrell: 4.49
4. Jaire Alexander: 4.69

TD%

1. Sauce Gardner: 1.43%
2. Jaire Alexander: 3.08%
3. Pat Surtain II: 4.05%
4. A.J. Terrell: 4.69%

INT%

1. Pat Surtain II: 3.47%
2. A.J. Terrell: 2.08%
3. Jaire Alexander: 1.49%
4. Sauce Gardner: 1.43%

Completion %

1. Pat Surtain II: 54.3%
2. Sauce Gardner: 55.0%
3. Jaire Alexander: 58.7%
4. A.J. Terrell: 59.4%

Passer Rating

1. Sauce Gardner: 70.1
2. Pat Surtain II: 70.8
3. A.J. Terrell: 87.9
4. Jaire Alexander: 92.2

Sauce’s numbers drop slightly but he is still the best of the bunch with Surtain close behind him.

Regardless of the source, Sauce is having an incredible start to his career. He’s dominant on a play-by-play basis and only his lack of interceptions allows other players to have any argument against him.

So, even compared to the top cornerbacks in the NFL, Sauce’s start to his career is arguably the best in the last decade. The only question is how far can his star rise?

Can Sauce Gardner finish as the G.O.A.T. Cornerback?

In a passing league, Sauce is dominating on a weekly basis. When comparing the start of his career to several of the top cornerbacks in the NFL, Sauce is still in a class of his own. This isn’t too much of a surprise considering he’s been a top-five cornerback in each of the last two seasons, if not the best.

Sauce Gardner is having a historic start to his career. He’s arguably been the best CB and top 5 at worst the last 2 seasons.

Here is how he ranks in several key categories each season:

Lost in the Sauce #Jets pic.twitter.com/1ZPNeePZly

— Stefan Stelling (@li_jets) January 10, 2024

So how high does his arrow point? At this point, he is on pace to raise the bar to new heights. Even Darrelle Revis, one of the undisputed top lockdown cornerbacks in NFL history, wasn’t close to this level as a rookie. He started putting it all together at the end of his second year in 2008 before his historic 2009 season.

At this point, the last thing Sauce Gardner can do to cement his place in NFL history is to get more interceptions. It’ll be difficult, as he’s one of the least-targeted cornerbacks in the NFL, but he still gets his share of opportunities as he ranked top 10 in pass breakups each of the last two seasons.

Outside of getting more interceptions, it would be a nice touch if Sauce spent more time traveling with a team’s top wide receiver to take them out of the game. But that’s rare in the current NFL and barely necessary considering D.J. Reed and Michael Carter II are both great players in their own right.

Truly the only thing Sauce needs to do to be a Hall of Fame cornerback, and discussed as potentially the greatest to ever do it, is just keep playing like he has been. Until he hangs up his cleats, Jets fans should appreciate greatness as they did 15 years ago.

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