In the wake of the Colts' blockbuster trade for Sauce Gardner two weeks ago, defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson looked down at his phone and saw a text message that read:
"You finally get to work with Sauce."
Prior to being hired to the Colts' coaching staff this year, Henderson spent the last five seasons as the New York Giants' defensive backs coach. In 2022, when the Giants had the fifth and seventh overall picks, Henderson was tasked with taking a deep dive into the top cornerbacks in that year's draft class. One of them, of course, was Gardner, who had just wrapped up an All-American final collegiate season at Cincinnati.
Henderson spent plenty of time with Gardner in the pre-draft process, visiting with him and getting to know who he was as a player and person. And Gardner left quite an impression on Henderson in those weeks and months leading up to the NFL Draft.
"He was one of the guys I wanted a chance to work with," Henderson said.
The New York Jets selected Gardner with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, one spot before the Giants went on the clock. The Giants took a defensive end (Kayvon Thibodeaux) and an offensive lineman (Evan Neal) with their top-seven picks, and Henderson went about his job with the Giants and then moved to the Midwest.
Three and a half years later, in a different city, Gardner showed up in Henderson's meeting room.
"It's funny how things come full circle," Henderson said.
For Henderson, those hours spent with Gardner in the spring of 2022 have paid off in the fall of 2025. Henderson already had an idea of how to work with Gardner, which made for a smoother transition between the coach and cornerback – and for the cornerback to his new team.
"He's such a bright-eyed person," Henderson said. "He likes information, he talks a lot, he asks a lot of questions — very inquisitive, very urgent in everything he does. He brings a level of excitement to the room, he brings a level of excitement to the defense in how he plays and how he things and how he communicates with the guys on the field."
But Henderson's knowledge of Gardner wasn't the only way a pre-draft evaluation from a coach with his former team has paid off for the 2025 Colts.
Back in 2019, the Los Angeles Chargers had a 37-year-old Philip Rivers entering the final year of his contract. With an eye on the future, the Chargers dispatched quarterbacks coach Shane Steichen to Duke to get to know Daniel Jones, one of the top quarterback prospects in that year's draft.
Steichen sent Jones a mini Chargers playbook to review for his visit, which included a workout as well. But there was something else Steichen wanted to get out of his trip to North Carolina.
"I said, 'You've got one real job,'" Steichen recalled. "'Make sure we get into that Cameron Indoor so we can play Horse.'"
Jones, indeed, got he and Steichen on Duke's historic basketball court.
"We got there and we did the workout," Steichen said. "I said, 'You get that thing set up?' He's like, 'Yeah, I got it.' So, we got in there and shot around a little bit, and then we went in and talked ball a little bit. And obviously, just killed all the stuff we sent him. Didn't miss anything. Very cerebral. Watched game tape with him. He was phenomenal in that process."
While Jones was off the board well before the Chargers' made their first-round pick, the time Steichen spent with Jones became important early in 2025, when the Colts were looking for a veteran quarterback to bring into their building. And it wasn't just Steichen who had looked into Jones; general manager Chris Ballard and Colts scouts had done their work on the Duke quarterback leading up to the draft in 2019, too.
The point is: There's plenty of value in front offices and coaching staffs doing their research on players before a draft, even if picking that guy may not be realistic for whatever reason. The information gleaned from those processes can, later on, lead you to a new starting quarterback or help you get a star cornerback acclimated to a new setting as quickly as possible.
And it's why headlines in February, March and April of "team X met with draft prospect Y" aren't always immediately relevant. But, maybe years down the line, they suddenly will be when, as the text message to Henderson read, you finally get to work with that player.
"You never know when this information is going to come back around to be beneficial," Ballard said. "And that's why we scout — it's with every player. You gotta know guys that get cut, guys hat enter free agency, guys you have a chance to trade for — you've gotta have the background information so you can help make a good decision when that time comes."
