Sauce Gardner now has a lot of dough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Jets and Gardner agreed Tuesday to a four-year, $120.4 million contract extension that makes him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history, The Post confirmed. <\/p>\n
The deal includes $60 million guaranteed in new money, per NFL Network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the second time in as many days that team owner Woody Johnson broke the bank<\/a> to lock up one of his franchise cornerstones.<\/p>\n It cost more than $250 million in total this week to secure receiver Garrett Wilson and Gardner \u2014 who arrived together in 2022 as top 10 draft picks and won their respective Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year awards \u2014 through the 2030 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTHE DEAL IS DONE,\u201d Gardner wrote on X, thanking his co-agents, brother Allante Gardner and AJ Vaynerchuk. \u201cThis only the beginning. \u2026 I appreciate the Jets organization for believing in me, my teammates for the blood, sweat, & tears we put in, and JETS NATION\u2026 I appreciate y\u2019all supporting me. Thank you GOD.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner catches the ball during practice at NFL football minicamp. AP<\/p>\n The average annual value on Gardner\u2019s contract narrowly eclipsed the benchmark set by the Texans\u2019 Derek Stingley Jr., who was drafted one pick ahead of Gardner and recently re-signed for $30 million per year. It clearly was important to Gardner, 24, to be seen as No. 1 \u2014 matching his jersey number.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gardner and Stingley are lapping the field, as the Panthers\u2019 Jaycee Horn ($25 million per year) is the third highest-paid cornerback.\u00a0<\/p>\n The extensions kick in for the 2027 season, after Gardner and Wilson play on the final season of their rookie deals in 2025 and their exercised fifth-year options in 2026. <\/p>\n The players did not put any public pressure on the Jets by holding out of OTAs or grumbling about their contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The annual salary cap charges are not known because the exact structures of the deals and Gardner\u2019s signing bonus have not been released.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you were going to get Sauce done, you were going to have to make him the highest-paid cornerback,\u201d CBS Sports contracts analyst Joel Corry, a former agent, told The Post. \u201cThe upper echelon of the cornerback market and the receiver market, there shouldn\u2019t be as big a disparity as there had been. Wide receiver salaries exploded in 2022 and again in 2024, while cornerback salaries remained pretty stagnant. They started to jump last year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner talks to the media at minicamp. Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n The knock on Gardner compared to his peers is that he does not produce enough takeaways. He has recorded three interceptions and one forced fumble in 48 career games, though that could change with the expected shift to a blitz-heavy, man-to-man coverage scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there is no denying Gardner\u2019s standing as a shutdown corner who opposing quarterbacks tend to avoid. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the insider\u2019s view on Gang Green\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Jets by Brian Costello, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n He is a two-time Pro Bowler and two-time First-Team All-Pro who has allowed 454 receiving yards or fewer and two touchdowns or less in each of his first three seasons, according to NextGenStats.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only Gardner, Micah Parsons and Lawrence Taylor have been named First-Team All-Pro on defense in each of their first two seasons. By that standard, 2024 was a down year individually, and Gardner has attracted an unusual number of critics for a star player.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI want to win. I want to be a part of changing the organization,\u201d Gardner said in May. \u201cIf you win in New York, it\u2019s big for your legacy individually, big for the organization.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n THE DEAL IS DONE\ud83d\udcdd this only the beginning. my brother @allantegardner<\/a> bts & @ajv<\/a> got it done. I appreciate the Jets organization for believing in me, my teammates for the blood, sweat, & tears we put in, and JETS NATION\u2026 I appreciate y’all supporting me\ud83d\udc9a Thank you GOD\ud83e\udd40 pic.twitter.com\/1qsiT3Xga3<\/a><\/p>\n