Through the first nine weeks of the 2025 NFL season, Shane Steichen's message to his team has been simple: get better today.
Don't worry about the future, he tells his players. In fact, don't even think about it. Take it one day at a time and just keep working.
Usually, the specifics of those kinds of improvements are kept behind closed doors; players fine-tune their skills in practice and meeting rooms, unbeknownst to the public until gametime on Sunday, if at all.
On Tuesday, though, the Colts got a whole lot better – and everyone heard about it.
The Colts' trade to acquire two-time All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets sent shockwaves through the NFL, as the Colts sent two first-round picks and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to the Jets in exchange for Gardner. It stands as one of the biggest in-season trades in recent memory, as the last time a team traded for a first-round pick for a player during a season was 2022.
"We got a lot of belief in our football team, and when you make a move like that, it's huge," Steichen said Tuesday. "It boosts the confidence in everybody that our football team's in a good spot."
Steichen's reaction to the trade was "pure excitement," he said, and for good reason: Gardner, at 25 years old, has already proven to be one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL. Since joining the league in 2022, he's earned NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and has become one of 12 cornerbacks in NFL history to earn multiple first-team AP All-Pro honors before turning 26 – and he's still in the early part of his career.
"His resumé speaks for itself," Steichen said. "He's an unbelievable player. To get a bona fide number one corner in this league, it elevates everybody around us. He's got all the elite traits you look for. He's sticky in coverage, the pass-breakups, the interceptions, he's feisty, he's aggressive. Just to add that to the fold in the back end with the guys we already got back there, it's going to elevate everybody."
In 55 career games played, Gardner has three interceptions, 46 passes defensed, one sack and 201 tackles. In his career, he has held opposing quarterbacks to a passer rating of 71.4 and allowed a 50.3 percent completion rate when targeted, per Pro Football Focus.
This season, in the seven games he's played, Gardner has not allowed more than two receptions to a single receiver in a game and has forced a tight window (less than one yard of separation) on 52 percent of his targets, the highest rate of any player targeted at least 20 times in coverage, per Next Gen Stats.
Gardner is expected to occupy a starting role alongside Jaylon Jones and Kenny Moore II – Charvarius Ward Sr. is eligible to return from injured reserve in Week 12, and Steichen said the expectation is for Ward to return "at some point" this season. So, when Ward returns, the Colts will have All-Pro cornerbacks occupying both sides of the field and Moore in the slot.
It doesn't get much better than that.
"That's a problem, obviously, as an offensive guy looking at defenses," Steichen said about the challenge the Colts defense will now pose to opponents. "You got to try to find ways to free your guys up because you know they're going to be sticky in coverage. So it's great for our football team to have those two guys along with the other guys we got there."
For a cornerback room that has dealt with plenty of turnover to this point in the season, Gardner provides stability and experience and opens the door for defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo to get even more creative with his game-planning.
"His coverage is elite," Steichen said. "I think the way he covers receivers, one-on-ones, how tight he is in coverage, how aggressive he is. He's long – he's 6-foot-3 – and can change directions, get on receivers like crazy."
In fact, from 2022 through the first nine weeks of 2025, Gardner is the highest-graded cornerback in coverage, per Pro Football Focus, with an grade of 91.8.
"To add a player like that, (with) this other stuff he can do and matchups that we can create, it'll be exciting to watch here this week and going forward," Steichen said.
And Gardner doesn't just elevate the secondary, either – his standout coverage skills can, and should, help the Colts pass rush as well.
"When you're sticky on the back end with the coverage guys that we got and adding him to the fold, obviously, that makes the quarterback probably hang onto the ball a little more, which helps the pass rush," Steichen said. "And it goes hand in hand. Same thing, the pass rush helps the coverage in the back end. So anytime you add an elite player like that to the back end, it's going to help everybody."
One thing worth noting: Gardner is currently in concussion protocol, Steichen said, but will practice on Wednesday. He must be cleared in order to play in the Colts' Week 10 game against the Atlanta Falcons in Berlin.
