There’s no question Jets rookie cornerback Saucr Gardner has already won over fans with his play on the field. He proved to be a top cornerback in college and was a huge reason why Cincinnati became the first Group of Five team to reach the College Football Playoff, as the Bearcats finished the regular season 13-0 and earning the No. 4 seed in the playoffs before losing in the semifinals to Alabama.
His status as a top prospect was cemented when he was drafted No. 4 overall by the New York Jets in the 2022 NFL Draft, becoming the highest Cincinnati player ever drafted. The previous highest was QB Greg Cook, taken by the Bengals at No. 5 in 1969.
Gardner knows he still has work to do, but he is certainly shooting for the stars. When it comes to who he likes to model his game after, Gardner mentioned one name that should make fans very excited for his potential.
That player? Rams star cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
“I used to model my game after Jalen Ramsey,” Gardner told Jets Wire. “I still watch him a lot and I have some things that we have that are the same so I kind of model my game after him still.”
Even the Jets have been giving him that comparison, including head coach Robert Saleh, even if it’s just about how much he likes to talk on the field.
“Saleh said he hasn’t been around a rookie who talked this much since cornerback Jalen Ramsey, when Saleh was linebackers coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2016,” wrote ESPN’s Rich Cimini.”
“The guy doesn’t stop talking when he’s on the football field — and he backs it up,” Saleh said.
Gardner loves the Ramsey comparison. “I feel like it’s true,” he told ESPN. “[Saleh] is just being honest. Jalen is a great player, he’s a great guy. That’s my guy. We chop it up every now and then. I see myself in him a little bit. We have a lot of the same tendencies, on and off the field, the way we carry ourselves, the way we talk a little bit of trash on the field.”
If Sauce can even come close to the type of player Ramsey is on the field, the kid from Detroit is going to make a lot of people in New York very happy. And everyone will be talking.
