When Sauce Gardner saw his phone light up with a call from New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey Tuesday afternoon, one thought came to the cornerback's mind.
"Please let it be my ideal situation."
He knew he didn't want to move all the way across the country, and he knew he wanted to be a part of a winning team.
So, when Gardner found out he would be heading to Indianapolis, the only thing he felt was excitement. The next thought was that he needed to start watching tape on the Colts' Week 10 opponent, the Atlanta Falcons.
"My life's real simple," Gardner said Wednesday. "I'm either at home or it's football. So I'm not thinking 'Oh, man, my life has changed.' It's a blessing, that's what I'm saying. I enjoyed my time in New York but it's a blessing to be here, and just a lot of positives. There's no cons to being here. It's all positives. So that was the main thing: now I gotta start watching tape on Atlanta."
"I didn't even really have time to process it all the way," Gardner added. "I just knew I was coming into a great situation, so like – I was running in circles in the house, cause the first thing I'm thinking is 'Man, I'm about to be back with my boy Alec,' and they're winning right now. I just know what I can add. I was happy."
Gardner and Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce were teammates at the University of Cincinnati from 2019-2021 and quickly formed a close friendship through their daily competition during practices. Four years later, they've reunited as teammates once again – and Pierce wasted no time making sure the rest of the locker room knew how talented Gardner is.
"He was so happy," Gardner said. "Everybody throughout the building was saying he always spoke highly of me, and obviously that made it easier for me to be here. Everybody already knew who I was as a person and a player."
The move also means Gardner is closer to his home state of Michigan and that he gets to wear his favorite color – blue – as much as he wants to.
"This was a great situation," Gardner said. "God just keeps blessing me in many ways...it just worked out perfect."
Gardner has already been welcomed with open arms by his teammates, who are well aware of the cornerback's high-level skills. Since arriving on Tuesday, he's thrown himself into doing everything he can to learn and prepare to make his Colts debut on Sunday against the Falcons in Berlin – Gardner cleared concussion protocol on Thursday.
"I've barely slept," he said with a smile. "Every single minute that I've had being here in Indianapolis, I'm doing something – whether it's with the trainings, whether it's filling out paperwork, whether it's practice, watching film...it's been a crazy 48 hours. Obviously, it's midseason, so this has been the craziest 48 hours."
Gardner is learning the playbook at a speed he didn't know was possible for him, he said, but expects to be fully ready to play alongside Jaylon Jones, Kenny Moore II and the rest of the Colts defense this weekend. And when Charvarius Ward Sr. makes his return from injured reserve (the earliest Ward can be activated is Week 12), the Colts will have two All-Pro cornerbacks on either side of the field.
But Gardner doesn't seem himself as some sort of "missing piece" for the Colts; he's well aware of the talent the defense already has and knows he was brought in to help elevate the entire team.
"I know cornerback is a hard position, so I'm not looking at it as I was the 'missing piece,'" Gardner said. "I think I'm a great additional piece to the defense for sure, and I know I'm gonna bring a lot to the table and things like that. So I'm looking forward to it, for sure."
And as for Gardner's expectations for his debut? Simple.
"To go out there and ball," he said. "To go out there and be vocal, make it like I've been here already, like I've been here. That's the main thing for me, not being somebody where it's like, you gotta overcommunicate to me because you might think that I don't know what we're playing and stuff like that. It's my job to get everything and understand everything we're about to play on Sunday in the short stint of time that I have."
Despite the whirlwind of events in the last 48 hours and the relative upheaval of his life, Gardner is joining the Colts with nothing but confidence and focus on the task at hand. He woke up in a new city, on a new team with a 7-2 record and championship aspirations, and he's taken every bit of it in stride. Simply put, he's exactly where he wants to be.
"There's no pressure," Gardner explained. "They got access to the tape, so they know what I'm capable of doing. And that's what makes it much more special. It was less about the Jets wanting to trade me and more about the Colts wanting me to be here, so that's truly a blessing. And it's a great group of guys already here, and that's what makes it even more special. A dominant offense, dominant defense. I'm just grateful to be a part of something special that they're already building here, and I look forward to just add a lot on and off the field here."
