Ask Shane Steichen what it takes to be a championship-level team, and the first thing he'll say is play complementary football.
In order to compete in the NFL, you need a balanced and well-prepared offense and you need an aggressive and versatile defense – and you need both sides to be able to feed off the other's success.
Basically, you have to be able to do everything and do it all well.
Easier said than done.
But, it's easier to do when you have guys like Daniel Jones leading your offense and Sauce Gardner contributing on defense.
Through the first nine weeks of the 2025 season, the Colts put on display their ability to play complementary football; in all seven of their wins, both the offense and defense came up with big plays at crucial moments.
Entering Week 10, the Colts remain the top-scoring team in the league, averaging 32.2 points per game and 3.19s per drive. They have scored on 62 of their 87 total possessions, proving capable of dominating both in the ground and pass game.
And while the defense has gone through ups and downs with injuries in the secondary, they have still been able to make impactful plays; the Colts are currently tied for six-most sacks in the league with 26 and have 10 interceptions, good for third overall.
The addition of two-time All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner undoubtedly bolsters the Colts defense as a whole, with his standout coverage skills opening the door for both a more aggressive secondary and a more productive pass rush. But with that, Gardner can also make an impact even when he's not physically on the field in terms of helping the Colts continue to play complementary football.
We've seen the Colts offense capitalize off big plays from the defense before, in terms of both energy and momentum: interceptions by Mekhi Blackmon and Nick Cross in Weeks 6 and 7, respectively, both directly led to Colts touchdown drives, not to mention the plethora of sacks and tackles that have cut opponents' drives short and put the ball back in Jones' hands.
"I think our defense has already been doing a phenomenal job, but obviously adding a player like that is a guy that's going to be able to line up and take a receiver away," Alec Pierce, who was college teammates with Gardner at Cincinnati for three years, said. "I think our DB room right now, if you look at it, is a lot of special players and just obviously adding another great player to that mix is going to make everything better."
Pierce and the rest of the Colts offense will also be able to go up against Gardner in practices, which will only better prepare them to face similarly skilled opponents. Since training camp, players like Jones, Jonathan Taylor and and Michael Pittman Jr. have credited Lou Anarumo's defense with preparing them better for a variety of looks and schemes, and brining in Gardner adds yet another wrinkle that will help the offense in the long run.
Gardner is most well-known for his sticky coverage skills, but Pierce and other players around the Colts locker room praised Gardner's competitiveness and football IQ as well. And while the defense is obviously the unit that will feel Gardner's impact the most, he is a difference-maker in every sense of the word; when a guy as talented as Gardner walks through the doors, everyone in the room is going to be affected in one way or another.
"Really good player, obviously, tremendous," Jones said. "He's a Pro Bowler, All-Pro player. So anytime you can get a guy like that is huge."
