Tag: Ahmad Sauce Gardner

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Inside the NFL’s press coverage revolution

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get deep into a new press coverage revolution in today’s NFL.

Over the last few seasons in the NFL, a lot of coaches and executives have tailored their defensive schemes in one specific fashion — an increase in press coverage from their cornerbacks. Not only the old-school aggressive press-man coverage we all know, but also mirror-match press man coverage, where a cornerback trails the receiver through his route as the route is declared.

Why? Because NFL offenses have found all kinds of ways to beat the old Seattle Cover-3 stuff from a decade ago with 3×1 and 2×2 receiver sets, and the route concepts inherent in those deployments. Now, if you’re rolling out that “Country Cover-3,” your defense is going to be in trouble.

There’s also the element of quick game in the league, which has increased in recent years. When the quarterback is throwing out of zero- to three-step drops, there are times when edge defenders simply don’t have time to get to the quarterback before the ball comes out. So, logic dictates that if you can’t disrupt the quarterback in the timing of the down, you need to disrupt the timing of the receivers’ routes, forcing the quarterback to delay his reads and throws, and giving those pass-rushers that extra split millisecond to get home.

In this week’s edition of “The Xs and Os,” Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, investigate the NFL’s changes in press coverage, and the players who do it the best, including...

  • L’Jarius Sneed of the Titans;
  • A.J. Terrell of the Falcons;
  • Martin Emerson Jr. of the Browns;
  • Patrick Surtain Jr. of the Broncos;
  • Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner of the Jets; and
  • Joey Porter Jr. of the Steelers.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell” right here:

You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Watching tape and talking music with New York Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner

New York Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner recently sat down with Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar to talk music and watch some game tape.

Great players can’t always control their circumstances.

In the case of New York Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, who came off a 2022 season that saw him win the consensus Defensive Rookie of the Year award, the expectations were that with the addition of Aaron Rodgers, the Jets were Super Bowl bound. Of course, that went out the window when Rodgers was lost for the season early in the team’s regular season debut, and at that point, you just have to make the best of it.

Which is exactly what Gardner and the Jets’ defense has done. While Gang Green has rifled through quarterbacks, and the offense ranks last in the NFL in DVOA, the defense ranks third, behind only the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens. Gardner has been a big part of that, allowing 27 catches on 44 targets for 236 yards, 75 yards after the catch, one touchdown, no interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 83.1. Gardner and his guys on that side of the ball have maintained a standard of performance with no margin for error.

I recently got to sit down with Gardner and go through some of his best plays from the 2023 season. Gardner was representing his role in Verizon and UNINTERRUPTED’s “Verizon Run the Playlist,” a one-of-a-kind content series offering exclusive access to the music that inspires fans’ favorite NFL teams,

Doug Farrar: First of all, tell me about your involvement in “Run The Playlist.” The Jets playlist must be of specific interest to you. Were there specific songs you wanted on that playlist? 

Sauce Gardner: I feel like the ones I chose were the ones that specifically stuck with us throughout the season. Like “SkeeYee” by Sexyy Red was in Hard Knocks — we used that in training camp. There was another song called “Talk” by Yeat, that’s one of Garrett Wilson’s favorite songs. Those two songs kind of summarize the season.

DF: I’ve talked to other cornerbacks through the years – most specifically Richard Sherman – about how interceptions aren’t usually the best arbiter of performance. This would seem to be the case with you this season, because you don’t have an interception yet this season, but you’ve played very well. How do you feel about the lack of picks? 

SG: I just feel that I could have gotten the ones back that I didn’t. Make the most of those opportunities. At the end of the day, I’m not getting targeted much, but I still had those opportunities earlier in the season.

DF: You rarely travel from side to side – this season, you have 93% of your snaps on the defensive left side, whether it’s outside, the slot, or a split alignment. Is this your preference, or would you perhaps like to move around more often? 

SG: It doesn’t matter to me — wherever the coaches want me, I’m gonna play.

DF: I’m in Seattle, so I know how good D.J. Reed was up here. What makes him such a great (and underrated) cornerback? 

SG: Man, he’s just always working. He’s always watching film, taking care of his body, and finding ways to get better. He’s a guy I always watch, and that’s my dog right there. We’re always with each other, picking each other’s brains, asking each other what we see from receivers, and what we can expect.

DF: Through the season, the Jets’ defense has been on point. What does that say about you guys that you’re able to maintain a level of performance regardless? And what does that say about head coach Robert Saleh?

SG: We’re hungry. We’re always finding ways to get better. We play fast — Coach Saleh, he always tells us what to expect, and who we need to stop when we’re playing against an offense. He’s a defensive head coach, so he knows everything about our defense. He’s a great head coach, and we appreciate having him. [The problems] happened on offense, and they’re our brothers, but as a defense, we still have our jobs to do.

With that, let’s get into the job Sauca Gardner has done this season.

Referee Alex Kemp’s weird holding call on Sauce Gardner may have cost the Jets a win

Referee Alex Kemp’s defensive holding call on cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner may have cost the Jets a chance to beat the Chiefs.

With 4:29 left in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s Kansas City Chiefs-New York Jets game, it looked as if Patrick Mahomes had thrown his third interception of the contest to cornerback Michael Carter. As the Chiefs were up 23-20, this was a major turn of events.

Then, referee Alex Kemp came busting in with the opinion that cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner had committed defensive holding on receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Kemp didn’t help matters by mis-identifying Gardner as No. 11 when Gardner wears No. 1 (11 is Valdes-Scantling’s number), and then, when you look at the play itself… well, it’s highly suspect.

That call gave the Chiefs first-and-10 at the Jets’ 35-yard line, and they were able to run out most of the clock for the narrow victory. Jets head coach Robert Saleh was ear-holing Kemp and his crew until the game ended, and he got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty which ran out the rest of the clock.

Hard to blame Saleh for feeling that way.

The Xs and Os: Which traits make for a great outside cornerback?

In this week’s edition of “The Xs and Os,” Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar define the traits needed to be a top-tier NFL outside cornerback.

If you were to create the ideal secondary for the modern NFL, most likely that secondary would have at least five pass defenders in its base coverages. Adding that slot defender, whether it’s a cornerback or a safety in “big nickel” (three-safety) packages, is a must against today’s 3×1 receiver sets. You’d also want outside cornerbacks who can play press-man coverage against an opponent’s top receivers, and safeties who don’t live by the old free and strong designations.

In this week’s edition of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg (of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup) and Doug (of Touchdown Wire) endeavor to build the perfect modern secondary, starting with the ideal traits for every position.

[mm-video type=video id=01h3ezk80xx1z7rp1w2n playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h3ezk80xx1z7rp1w2n/01h3ezk80xx1z7rp1w2n-4265b7ad0321817c1560c2b15ddc1089.jpg]

Building the perfect cornerback for 2023 and beyond requires that this hypothetical cornerback play man coverage right out of the box. As we discussed on the show last week, there’s one reason for this: The increasing use of quick game by NFL offenses.

[mm-video type=video id=01h3ezpxd7g15zmjbm01 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h3ezpxd7g15zmjbm01/01h3ezpxd7g15zmjbm01-f21c6d66dddf0e7b2a2c7fad0935daa2.jpg]

“You would start with the idea that he has to play man coverage,” Greg said. “If he cannot play man coverage, he cannot play cornerback at a high level in the National Football League. Now, there are multiple ways to play man coverage. It doesn’t always have to be press; you can play off-man, as well. The increasing use of quick game, and the increasing use of the RPO, which is basically another form of quick game with an added element to it… the need to play press has increased in the league. With quick game, the ball comes out of the quarterback’s hand in anywhere from 1.5 to 1.7 seconds from the time of the snap, and the pass rush isn’t going to get there. So, you’re not going to affect the quarterback — you need to impact the receivers.”

Which is one reason offenses are using so much pre-snap motion these days — to take aggressive press coverage out of the equation. But this isn’t the only thing the modern cornerback must do at a consistently high rate.

“One of the things you see a lot of in the NFL is 3×1 sets,” Greg continued. “Meaning that there’s three receivers to one side, and a single receiver to the short side of the field. More often than not, that receiver is a wide receiver — what we call the ‘Boundary X.’ You need a cornerback who can match up to the Boundary X receiver, man-to-man with theoretically no help. It doesn’t happen like that 100% of the time — nothing does — but there will be situations in which that cornerback will be playing man coverage with no help. Basically, it’s Cover-0.”

One of the reasons that Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner of the Jets won the Defensive Rookie of the Year award was his ability to click and close on iso receivers with three receivers to the other side without any safety help. This deflection of a Josh Allen deep pass to receiver John Brown in Week 14. Gardner is one of the few NFL cornerbacks with just about every attribute you want at the position.

Gardner ranked second in our list of the NFL’s 11 best cornerbacks, and if he’s No. 1 in 2024, few people should be surprised.

The NFL’s 11 best cornerbacks

You can watch the full episode of this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

[mm-video type=video id=01h3e1rndyarsedhsv07 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h3e1rndyarsedhsv07/01h3e1rndyarsedhsv07-532471484eb8efbbaf07cb2049cd125c.jpg]

You can also listen to the Xs and Os podcast on Spotify:

…or on Apple podcasts.

The NFL’s 11 best cornerbacks

Touchdown Wire’s positional lists continue with Doug Farrar’s 11 best cornerbacks heading into the 2023 NFL season.

If you want to know how variable cornerback performance can be from year to year, consider the case of Atlanta Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell. In 2021, Terrell was one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks, allowing 29 catches on 66 targets for 200 yards, 93 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, three interceptions, 13 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 47.5. One season later, Terrell gave up 39 catches on 68 targets for 430 yards, 142 yards after the catch, a league-high nine touchdowns, no interceptions, eight pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 115.8.

Or consider the case of J.C. Jackson. The former Patriots star never allowed an opponent passer rating lower than 62.7 over four seasons in New England. Then, he signed a five-year, $82.5 million contract with the Chargers, and between schematic issues and injuries, Jackson allowed 198 catches on 27 targets for 370 yards, 72 yards after the catch, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 152.4 — in just five games.

Why are CBs J.C. Jackson, William Jackson III, A.J. Terrell, and Amani Oruwariye struggling in 2022?

From year to year, cornerback performance can be as volatile as you can possibly imagine, for all kinds of reasons. The same cornerback on the same team in a system supposedly set up to help him succeed can see his performance fluctuate wildly from season to season.

[mm-video type=video id=01h3ezk80xx1z7rp1w2n playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h3ezk80xx1z7rp1w2n/01h3ezk80xx1z7rp1w2n-4265b7ad0321817c1560c2b15ddc1089.jpg]

For those cornerbacks who made this year’s list — Patrick Surtain II, Marlon Humphrey, Darius Slay, Jaire Alexander, and Jalen Ramsey — it’s a case of beating the odds. This means that there are seven new players on this year’s list, which is about par for the course.

The criteria for inclusion on this year’s list were…

  • A majority of snaps at outside cornerback. If you’re primarily a slot defender, we have a separate list for you!
  • A good balance between man and zone coverage performance. If you’re off-balance to one side, it’ll affect things here, just as it does on the field.
  • Similarly, a good balance between the abilities in press and off coverage will serve you well here, as it does in the National Football League.
  • If you are prone to following top receivers across the formation, as opposed to playing one side of the field no matter what, that’ll help your case a bit.
  • Splash plays are great, but there are cornerbacks who get a lot of interceptions and give up even more big plays. Today’s NFL is about creating and preventing explosive plays, so how good are you at the latter?

This is the second in our positional rankings series, which concludes with our list of the 101 best players in the NFL today.

The NFL’s 11 best safeties

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated). 

Sauce Gardner or Tariq Woolen: Who should have won Defensive Rookie of the Month?

Tariq Woolen of the Seahawks won October’s Defensive Rookie of the Month award. Sauce Gardner of the Jets has a legit argument for robbery.

On Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks made NFL history with a draft class that has already been established as one of the best in franchise history. Head coach/shotcaller Pete Carroll, general manager John Schneider, and Seattle’s personnel staff hit on five early impact starters in offensive tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas, running back Kenneth Walker, and cornerbacks Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen. As rookie pass-rusher Boye Mafe is starting to announce his presence with authority, you could argue that the Seahawks will have six indispensable players in one draft class by season’s end.

That is a historic haul, to say the least. So, this week, it wasn’t a huge surprise when the Seahawks became the first team in league history to have an Offensive Rookie of the Month in Walker, and a Defensive Rookie of the Month in Woolen.

In Woolen’s case, the fifth-rounder from the University of Texas at San Antonio had 19 tackles, five passes defensed, three interceptions (including a 40-yard interception return for a touchdown) and two fumble recoveries across five games (Weeks 4-8) in October. He was the only player in the league with multiple interceptions and multiple fumble recoveries during the month.

Woolen has become a true lockdown cornerback sooner than just about anybody could have expected, but was he the best defensive rookie in October, Was he even the best rookie cornerback in October? There is an equivalent case to be made for Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner of the New York Jets. The fourth overall pick out of Cincinnati obviously cost the Jets a lot more than Woolen cost the Seahawks in terms of draft capital and actual money, but he’s playing to or beyond the level expected.

So, who should have been the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month: Sauce Gardner or Tariq Woolen? Let’s get into the tape and the metrics.

Packers player knocks cheesehead off celebrating Sauce Gardner of Jets

Jets rookie DB Sauce Gardner donned a cheesehead after their win

He’s a rookie with a huge attitude and the quality to entertain.

Not sure the faithful at Lambeau Field appreciated Jets DB Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner’s antics on Sunday.

The Jets downed the Packers, 27-10 and Gardner donned a cheesehead in celebration while walking on the storied turf.

Good thing Jets won’t be playing in Green Bay in the regular season for a while or else Packers fans would certainly know who Gang Green’s villain was.

One Packers player took offense to the actions and knocked the cheesehead off Gardner.

New York Jets sign cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner

The New York Jets reached a contract deal with Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner on Saturday.

The New York Jets reached a contract agreement with their first pick in the 2022 NFL draft Saturday, signing a deal with cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner. Adam Schefter of ESPN was among the first reporters to announce the deal. Gardner, the fourth-overall selection in the 2022 NFL draft, signed a four-year, fully-guaranteed rookie deal.

The team also announced the deal on social media:

Gardner parlayed his impressive career at Cincinnati into the top five of the 2022 NFL draft, becoming the second cornerback drafted after Derek Stingley Jr. came off the board third-overall to the Houston Texans. He was one of New York’s three first-round selections, along with Garrett Wilson and Jermaine Johnson II.

He drew comparisons to cornerback Richard Sherman, leading many to believe that Gardner would be an ideal fit for Jets head coach Robert Saleh. Even Sherman himself saw the similarities between his game and the new Jets defensive back.

Gardner’s length, ability to play on an island in man coverage, and how well he changes directions for a player of his size, made him into a top selection in the 2022 NFL draft. Those traits, plus his fit with Saleh’s defensive philosophy, might make him a mainstay in the New York secondary for years to come.

Seahawks: College highlights for fourth-round pick Coby Bryant

The 2021 college highlights for Cincinnati cornerback Coby Bryant, picked by the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL draft.

The Seattle Seahawks beefed up their secondary in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL draft when they selected Cincinnati cornerback Coby Bryant, who played opposite of top-five pick Sauce Gardner at No. 109 overall.

Below is look at his 2021 college highlights.

[lawrence-related id=88754]

 

[listicle id=88756]

New York Jets select Cincinnati CB Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner with the 4th pick. Grade: A+

The New York Jets have selected Cincinnati CB Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner with the fourth pick. Grade: A+

With the fourth pick in the 2022 NFL draft, the New York Jets select Cincinnati CB Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner.

GRADE: A+.

In today’s NFL, where offenses are throwing quick game 60% of the time, you’d better have cornerbacks in your defense who can press and disrupt at the line of scrimmage, and then take receivers all the way up the field. Gardner played about 75% press in his snaps last season, and the Bearcats played more single-high than any NCAA defense except for LSU’s. There is no better fit for Robert Saleh’s defense in this draft class, regardless of position.

Mark Schofield’s scouting report: 

Height: 6’3″ (98th) Weight: 190 (42nd)
40-Yard Dash: 4.41 seconds (77th)
Bench Press: N/A
Vertical Jump: N/A
Broad Jump: N/A
3-Cone Drill: N/A
20-Yard Shuttle: N/A

Bio: Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner was a wide receiver and cornerback for Martin Luther King High School in Detroit, Michigan. 247Sports graded him as a three-star recruit, and he was named one of the top-30 players in the state of Michigan in the 2019 recruiting class. He entertained offers from a number of Power 5 programs, including Kentucky and Indiana, but signed to play for the Cincinnati Bearcats.

He played right away for Cincinnati, appearing in all 11 games as a true freshman and snaring three interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns. Over his career with the Bearcats, Gardner grabbed three interceptions in each of his three seasons on campus, and never allowed a touchdown pass.

His nickname Sauce was given to him by a youth football coach, reportedly due to Gardner’s love of dipping sauces.

Stat to Know: If you want a cornerback in this class with press coverage experience, Gardner is your player. Pro Football Focus charted him with 397 press coverage snaps this past season, tops among cornerbacks.

Strengths: We can begin there. Gardner is, as PFF noted in their draft guide, a cornerback who was built in a laboratory to play press man coverage. His size, length and footwork make him ideal to play on an island, isolated against a team’s top receiver in press alignment.

But size is not his best trait as a cornerback, although his frame puts him in a position to step into an NFL defense and play in such a press-heavy scheme. What really stands out to me watching Gardner is his feel and technique for the position. Gardner uses his length extremely well, always keeping a hand on the receiver and maintaining ideal positioning.

In press, Gardner is patient and rarely panics. He can play physical off the line as well, as he does here on this snap against Notre Dame where he is aligned on the left side of the defense:

Perhaps my favorite snap of his from this past season was this play against Temple, where he covers the crossing route working left-to-right well initially, but his response to the sudden scramble-drill move from the receiver gets to his movement skills:

On this play you see how Gardner’s technique — keeping a hand on the receiver — puts him in position to immediately flip his hips and stay on the receiver as the offensive player makes the sudden turn upfield. It is one thing for a cornerback to mirror a conventional route, or even a double move, with change-of-direction skills. But when a receiver makes a more unexpected move, such as a vertical break in a scramble-drill situation, and you can mirror it the way Gardner does here? That truly stands out.

While the bulk of his experience is playing man from a press alignment, there are moments where Gardner showed schematic versatility, and the ability to play in zone coverage or from off alignments. On this play against East Carolina, that ability was on display as he sinks under the corner route from the tight end in a Cover 2 scheme:

Still, his strength is what he offers in man coverage, as well as how he plays in press alignment. Gardner offers “island cornerback” potential, something that many teams are probably hoping they have on the defensive side of the football.

Weaknesses: There are not a ton of weaknesses to his game, as you might expect when discussing some of the top players in the draft class. He has more experience in press-man than zone, which might have zone-heavy teams a bit wary. There were some snaps against Alabama where his aggression got to him, as receivers were able to get past him on double-moves. He does not have elite, track-level speed, so burners at the receiver position might be able to get open deep downfield, but the 4.41 40-yard dash at the Combine “checked the box” for him.

Conclusion: What Gardner does in press alignment and/or man coverage checks a lot of NFL boxes. Gardner believes he is the best player in the entire draft class, and you need that confidence as a cornerback in the NFL. Plus, when Richard Sherman names you CB1, you have every right to be confident.

Comparison: For me, Sherman is the comparison. The length, movement skills and ability to align in press and stick on a receiver are the reasons why.