Allen Park — You’d be hard pressed to find a player in the NFL whose jersey number suits them better than New York Jets rookie corner Sauce Gardner.
The 22-year-old Detroit native is, by both statistics and uniform, No. 1.
“He fits perfect for that defense,” Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell said, realizing a second later that’s like saying a five-star chef is a perfect fit for a specific family diner. “I mean, he’d fit perfect in just about any defense.”
Gardner, a Martin Luther King High School grad who played college ball at Cincinnati and went No. 4 in the 2022 NFL Draft, has had an unprecedented start to his NFL career.
In man-coverage, Gardner (6-foot-3, 200 pounds) leads the league in yards allowed (28), completion percentage allowed (30%) and coverage success rate (80%). He leads the league in passes defensed (16) in all coverages and is allowing a passer rating of 57.7 when targeted this season. He has been named Pepsi Rookie of the Week three times and AFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 7.
“He’s a good player. He’s long, he’s fast, he’s athletic. He makes a lot of plays in transition,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. “He’s a good, solid player, especially as a rookie.”
When a player dominates like Gardner has, Campbell said it’s hard to put his finger on any one attribute that stands out amongst the rest. He has length, of course, speed, pure ball skills — they’re all on the bill. But it also sounds like a big portion of Gardner’s success is the swagger he’s had since playing at King, just down the road from Ford Field.
“You wish you could just say — well, he’s really doing this with his — it’s confidence,” Campbell said. “He came in believing in himself, and you can just tell, man, he believes that he can compete. He’s not worried about — he doesn’t get frazzled if something happens, you know?
“Those things are gonna happen on the perimeter. Every once in awhile, a corner’s just gonna get beat, and you can see that, man, he just goes back to the next one, and that’s what you want in a corner. So, he’s got the skillset, but he’s just got the right demeanor and the right attitude, and that shows up.”
On the surface, it may have seemed like Gardner made a ton of sense for the Lions, who had the second pick in the draft and ultimately took Aidan Hutchinson. But unlike when talking about Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end — and No. 1 pick — Travon Walker, Campbell said he and general manager Brad Holmes had a pretty strong idea of where they were going with the No. 2 selection, and those ideas didn’t include Gardner.
“Honestly, I didn’t really get to know him that well,” Campbell said. “Now, I watched a lot of tape, I’ve got to see him play, but just the person…I didn’t get much of that. We were going to bring him out here and that didn’t work out, but I know that he’s a heck of a football player…”
“We thought about (drafting) a lot of different guys, but I don’t — I never really felt like it went there for Brad (Holmes) and myself. We felt pretty comfortable with where we wanted to go with it.”
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Wide receiver D.J. Chark said Wednesday that he’s noticed the Jets typically have their corners stick to a specific side — Gardner prefers the left — meaning whichever receiver has success against the Jets will likely either be doing it near the opposite sideline or over the middle of the field.
That could certainly mean more opportunities for guys like Amon-Ra St. Brown, a speedy slot receiver who won’t have to face off against the most athletic player on New York’s defense.
While the Lions have had some success chucking it deep in recent weeks — Chark, Detroit’s X-receiver, caught six passes for 98 yards against Jacksonville and seven for 94 and a touchdown against Minnesota — it’s almost certain that Gardner and Co. will force them to reconsider at the Meadowlands on Sunday.
“I feel like we got a lot of weapons on offense and I’m excited,” St. Brown said. “If you take one guy away, someone else is gonna eat.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi