If past quotes and a lucrative four-year extension can tell us anything, it's that cornerback Sauce Gardner was hoping to stick around the Jets long enough to help the team turn things around. But, if he had to get traded (like he was on Tuesday), it sounds like he’s pretty happy with where he ended up.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Gardner detailed where he was and what he was thinking when he got the call from Jets general manager Darren Mougey, as well as how the swap to the Colts lines up pretty perfectly with his aspirations and preferences.
“I was laying in bed with my girl and I was just chilling. I just got a call from Mougey, the GM for the Jets. Obviously, the trade deadline was coming up, so I was just like, please, let it be my ideal situation. I don't want to go to a losing team. I don't want to go to a team that's on the other side of the world,” Gardner said.
“Obviously, I got drafted there [to New York] and everything like that, but I want to win. ... So this was a great situation. Obviously, knowing a few guys on the team already, being closer to home, being closer to where I went to college. God just keep blessing me in many ways. ... And my favorite color's blue. It worked out perfect.”
Watch that below:
Sauce Gardner on being traded to the #Colts: pic.twitter.com/CLOJrxwsCh
— Kevin Bowen (@KBowen1070) November 6, 2025
“I didn't even have time to process it all the way,” he added, of the trade. “ just knew I was coming into a great situation. I was running in circles in the house. ... They winning right now, so I know what I can add. So I was happy. But at the same time, I didn't have no time to be like, ‘Dang. I'm getting traded right now.’ It was just all good vibes because at the end of the day, who gonna feel sorry [for me]? That's part of the business.”
Interestingly enough, the corner also seemed to suggest that, given the Colts' offer (two first-round picks plus receiver Adonai Mitchell), the Jets did the right thing by accepting.
“I'm not gonna say shocked was the word because I know that, what the Colts offered was something that was hard to pass up on,” he said. “Especially with how its been over the years. So it made sense.”
Gardner went to college at Cincinnati, where he played alongside current Colts receiver Alec Pierce. He is also from Detroit originally. As he mentioned, both cities are much closer to Indy than the greater N.Y.C. area, and he's already got a friendly face to welcome him in Pierce.
So all in all, although a trade can be a lot, it sounds like Gardner made out like a bandit. He's back “home” (or close enough), joining the top team in the AFC South, and will make an immediate impact for the secondary-needy squad.
He'll make his Blue and White debut on Sunday, when the Colts take on the Falcons in Germany at 9:30 a.m. ET.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sauce Gardner Shares What He Was Thinking When Jets GM Called Him About Trade.
