Few players have had a splashier entry into the NFL than New York Jets’ cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner. He earned Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2022 and was a first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler that same year. In 2022, he again earned first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl nods. He took a small step back in 2024, but so did the entire Jets team. That’s typically what happens when a head coach is fired midseason.
But a down year for Gardner is still a pretty good year for most other cornerbacks, and many analysts agreed that he was still among the league’s best cornerbacks. PFF had Gradner at the top spot in their 2025 cornerback rankings, and ESPN’s cornerback rankings, in which NFL executives, coaches, and scouts were anonymously polled, had Gardner at No. 5.
It comes as a shock then to see that Gardner was completely excluded from the annual NFL Top 100 players list. This ranking, voted on by the players themselves, concluded on Sunday with the Top 15 players revealed. As Gardner had not yet been featured, many assumed that this is where he landed. Instead, Gardner was snubbed after landing in the Top 40 each of the previous two years.
As if the snub wasn’t bad enough, this year’s list featured more cornerbacks (seven!) than last year. Even Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell, who have played just one year in the NFL, were both ranked ahead of Gardner.
Why the players don’t view Garder as one of the NFL’s one hundred best players is a mystery. Sure, he appeared to have lost a step or two after his meteoric rise as a rookie and sophomore player, but clearly the analysts at PFF and NFL scouts and coaches still think highly enough of him to place him in the Top 5 of cornerbacks.
Hopefully for Jets fans, Gardner takes this snub personal and sets out to prove all the doubters wrong in 2025. If the Jets want to be a competitive team this year, they’re going to need their best players to have their best seasons yet.