Blockbuster Sauce Gardner trade is the Colts planting their flag with Daniel Jones for 2025 and beyond
Indy is doubling down not only on the 2025 season, but on its veteran quarterback
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The Indianapolis Colts cannonballed into the pool on deadline day, pulling off the most surprising blockbuster of them all by acquiring All-Pro corner Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets. It was a massive haul to land Gardner, with Indy shipping two first-round picks (2026 and 2027) along with wideout AD Mitchell to the Big Apple. It was a pushing all of your chips into the middle-type move by Chris Ballard and the rest of the front office, and it's hard to blame them for doing it.
The Colts have been the surprise team of 2025, bursting onto the scene with a 7-2 record and reaching the midway point of the regular season as the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The offense is averaging a league-best 32.2 points per game and is only behind the Buffalo Bills for the most total yards per game (383.3). Their main weakness has been on defense, ranking 26th against the pass, 29th on third down, and last in passing yards per game outside the numbers. With that deficiency highlighted, a pursuit of Gardner makes sense.
Clearly, the 2025 Indianapolis Colts were worth investing in at the deadline, but this level of a trade goes beyond that. This blockbuster has as much to do with the resurrection of Daniel Jones and the organization's belief that he will maintain this caliber of play for the foreseeable future as it does anything pertaining to this year's squad.
Given how well Jones, who inked a one-year, $14 million deal back in March, has played thus far, it was a foregone conclusion that he would receive a lucrative extension. That said, there was a long way between now and the offseason for the team to continue monitoring this out of left field resurgence and determine whether or not it's sustaining for the long-term.
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After all, we've seen Jones pop in the past, particularly in 2022 when he led the New York Giants to a 9-6-1 record and to the divisional round of the playoffs that year while posting a 92.5 passer rating (a career-best before 2025). New York went on to sign him to a four-year, $160 million extension that offseason, and the team never maintained that prior level of success. Jones went 3-13 as a starter over the next two seasons with a 76.6 passer rating and was released midway through the 2024 campaign.
While this situation with Indianapolis feels night and day different than what Jones dealt with in New York, that thought had to have been stuck in the back of the minds of some in the Colts organization. That's especially true after Week 9, when Jones and Co. lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the veteran showed some initial cracks, committing five turnovers (three interceptions and two lost fumbles).
| Daniel Jones this season | First 8 games | Week 9 at Steelers |
|---|---|---|
Completion percentage | 71% | 62% |
Yards per attempt | 8.5 | 6.8 |
Total TDs | 17 | 2 |
Turnovers | 3 | 5 |
That's what makes the timing of this blockbuster so fascinating. Even on the heels of that loss, where Jones looked more like his former self, the Colts decided to go all in anyway. Not only on this year's team, but the quarterback himself. By making this trade for Gardner and sending away two first-rounders, however, Indy has effectively taken itself out of the quarterback market for the next two years.
It's planting of the flag-type of trade that signals Daniel Jones is their quarterback for 2025 and, whenever they agree on that looming extension, beyond.
