New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner just finished up one of the finest rookie NFL seasons in recent memory. The fourth overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, Gardner stepped into the starting lineup for the Jets from day one and looked like a top-tier cornerback immediately.
He wasn’t just impressive for a rookie, but he was arguably the best cornerback in the NFL at the first time of asking. Gardner finished the season making both PFF's All-Pro first team and the AP’s All-Pro first team. He had the kind of season that was hard not to be impressed with.
His 90.2 PFF coverage grade for the year is the best single-season mark PFF has given to a full-time outside cornerback in the past 17 years of grading, narrowly beating out Tre’Davious White’s mark from 2017. Casey Hayward Jr. owns the best coverage grade of any cornerback, but he spent most of his rookie season in the slot and played 140 fewer coverage snaps over the season.
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