November 5, 2025 • 9 mins
New York Jets reporter Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic joins us to give New York’s perspective on the Sauce Gardner trade, his contract and how it was structured for him to get dealt, AD Mitchell’s role in the trade, was the return what he thought it would be, his Sauce Gardner story research he hasn’t had a chance to write yet & more!
Support the show: https://1075thefan.com/the-wake-up-call-1075-the-fan/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We bring in our next guest, Zach Rosenblad, who covers
the team for the Athletic and is kind enough to
get up early and join us on the fan morning
show in the Payless Lookers hotline this morning. Good morning, Zach.
Kept you busy yesterday, didn't we.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, they always do. It's nothing new around here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
How's this going down in New York right now?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, you know, I think, as a Dust has said
a little bit, I think the general reaction has been
positive because of the amount of draft capital they got,
not only with this trade, but with the Quinn Williams
on with the Cowboys and just kind of reset the
board and now they have five first round picks of
the next two years. So but in the moment, you know,
and even now still, honestly, it was pretty shocking. I
(00:38):
don't think there's any inkling that Sauces available or even
potentially going to get traded. I mean, he just signed
a new contract, so like that. The moment it happened,
it was one of those moments where you're looking at
the tweets and making sure they're not fake.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, that's certainly the case, at least a mind as
well as Zach and again thanks for joining us on
the show. So reading through your story this morning, and
we collabed on a bunch of stuff yesterday. A lot
of Slack messages after that trade went down. But one
of the things you were able to report is that
this was not some last minute approach from the Colts.
This was something that had been working. They had been
(01:11):
working toward over a number of weeks. So what can
you tell us about just the process of first reaching
out to the Jets about Sauce and then getting it
over the finished line to finally get him in the
Colts at uniform.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, so, I mean, I think it was more like
a couple of weeks ago. They just had conversations like
all teams, do you know, the Cults were calling around
the league looking for a corner and they called the
Jets to ask them about their corner backs. Not Jets sauce,
but Sauce was the main part of the conversation. And
the Jets were like, yeah, we're not really training him
unless somebody blows us away with an offer, and the
Colts were like okay, And then you know, you get
(01:45):
back to now this week and the Colts call again
and they start offering a little bit more, and as
they keep having more conversations, now offer more and more,
to the point where darreon Moodie the Jets GM couldn't
really say no anymore. And you know, they agreed on
the draft pick, and then Mouji wanted to throw in
Adi Mitchell. I think he was really high on his potential,
so you add him into that, and and uh, you know,
(02:08):
Muji kind of interestingly said in his press conference yesterday
and this was kind of you could kind of see
it at the time, but I didn't think they would
train him right away, but they structured in a way
that would allow them to trade him if the opportunity arose, essentially,
which is pretty crazy thing to admit, not crazy, but
pretty interesting thing to admit, because you know, that's the
star player, and that's someone who you built around, and
you just announced that your cornerstone a few months ago.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Zach, thanks for the time this morning. If we had
this conversation yesterday at nine oh five, and I told
you saus Gardner was about to get traded, you would
have thought the compensation. Compensation would have looked like what.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Man, That's a good question. Multiple firsts, for sure, like
that's what I would have thought, like that, Yeah, yeah,
probably yeah, I mean, I but it's hard for me
to even answer that because I just like, it wasn't
a thing not even considered. So, you know, like if
you asked me like the same question about Garrett Wilson
right now, I don't know that i'd have a good answer.
Probably two first three first in a player or something
(03:05):
like something crazy like that. So you know, it's rare
that non quarterbacks get traded for multiple firsts. It takes
a really special player. I do think Sauce is maybe
better than some of the perception that's gotten out about
him at this point. He is a flawed player, like
he's not Patrick Sartan, but I think he's been one of,
if not the top five best corners in the NFL
over the last five years.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So could you delve a little bit deeper into that?
And I hate to throw out letter grades, but I
am a son of two teachers, so I tend to
kind of do that. You know, maybe early in his
career he was what a plus type of player, and
maybe I don't know, this year, it's you know, a
minus B plus if you want to get super technical,
there and also could you hit on the how much
shadowing did he do for you know, a variety of
(03:46):
defenses he played for.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, so I'll answer the second part first. You know,
with the Robert Solid defense, they had their guys staying
on their sides, so they had Sas Gardner on one side,
d d Red on the other. And he almost never
traveled with this new THEE he was traveling a little
bit more and still wasn't like one hundred percent of
the time, but he was traveling and he was doing
a pretty good job of it. And then oh, you
asked about like the grades, so I'd say, yeah, A plus.
(04:10):
The first two years, I mean, in all pro, your
first year is in the NFL, is is pretty crazy.
And I think in retrospect, Jets fans, in realistes spoiler,
they were And what that did was it raised the expectations.
So the last two years, where I'd say he was
a BB plus, probably they thought that he was bad
and that was not the case. The reality of Sauce
is like fans, not only Jets fans, but especially Jets fans,
(04:31):
focused on the things that he doesn't do, which is
he doesn't really get interceptions and he hasn't historically have
been a great tackler, but they don't focus on the
thing that he does do, which is keep the receiver
from catching the ball, and he does it as well
as anybody in the NFL. Quarterbacks do not throw it
in his direction, which is why it harder for him
to get picked a lot of times, because you know,
I think he think he averages it a catch against
(04:53):
him every twenty snaps, which is the best rate in
the NFL in terms of like how how rarely he
gives up catch and in terms of targets, he's like
top ten this year as well. So quarterbacks don't throw
it in his direction. And you know, when the Colts
get healthy and they have trevarious awards, it's gonna be
very interesting to see how that goes. Zach.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I'm sure you haven't been able to catch up with
Sauce just yet, and I'll probably do it on my
end here if he's available today in Indianapolis. But do
you get the sense that he even thought that was
a possibility on his end or that he was open
to that idea. I know he tweeted about, you know,
all love to New York, but it is quite the
flip from you know, a couple months ago being the
(05:33):
highest paid, richest contract in cornerback history.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, you know when I understand he did not see
it coming at all. I don't think it was something
that was really broached to him at all. But I
think he'll take it in stride. I think he's somebody
that is highly motivated already anyway. He's somebody who has
been taking a lot of the losing that he's had
to deal with pretty bad. And I imagine that he's
as he sits down and thinks about what's going on
(05:58):
in Indianapolis and how good they are right now, Like,
he hasn't been on a team with this kind of record.
The best the Jets were with him were six and
three to start the twenty twenty two season, and then
they won seven games that whole season. So I imagine he's
pretty excited for the opportunity to play meeting for football
at this time of the year.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
A flight Plan that is a podcast listened to last
night was Zach Rosenblatt from The Athletic. He joins us here, Zach,
I thought I heard you, and if I misheard you,
I don't know, blame it on my dumb brain. But
did you say at some point this offseason you went
to Detroit to do a little bit more of a
future story on Sauce.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, I shared, did it. So I went to Detroit.
The main goal was to do in Aaron Glenn story,
which I did, but while I was there, I wanted
to also dig into Sauce in his background. I went
to his high school. I walked through the school with
the AD. I talked to his coach. I talked to,
you know, one of his old teammates. Like I was
getting ready to do it. I focused on Aaron Glenn
won the lead end of the season, and my plan
was to write the Sauce story early in the season
(06:52):
after a win. And so, as you can imagine, the
Jets just got the first win a few days ago
and Sauce wasn't even playing. So I just like have
not had the opportunity to write it. And then, you know,
as it happens in this job, sometimes you put a
lot of work into something and then you know, events
happen that keep you from me able to pursue it.
But maybe I'll write it down the line. If the
if the Colts ca on like a Super Bowl run.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
This year, maybe a snippet of your boots on the
ground reporting I selfishly, I love to see Sauce Gardner
now all of a sudden obsessed with the game of golf.
But I'm sure you your boots on the ground led
to some other things there.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, so I'd said. The funny thing about him was,
you know, he's a guy that they had him at
receiver in early in high school and he was like
buried on the depth chart. They had a cornerback that
like got injured, and you know, I have desperation. They're like,
maybe we should just try Sauce there. They throw him
out there. He like dominates that game and he never
looks back. And one of his coaches told me that,
like before that it happened like he has all these
(07:46):
old dms on Twitter from Sauce where Sauce is like, coach,
I think you should play me, like I think I'm
pretty good. I think your guys are making mistake not
playing me. Like he had the confidence like that, the
coach said, he like he had confidence before he even
had the skills necessarily, Like he just believed in self
completely from the beginning, and and then you know he
was he was off for the race when he got Cincinnati,
I don't even think you ever let up a touchdown.
And and yeah, you know, he's a guy that you
(08:07):
guys are gonna love there in that lot, especially the
media for the locker room wise, the fans will like
him until they get mad about him by any interceptions,
I guess, like Jets fans, I'm.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Just curious before we let you go Zach Is as
a follower of the NFL day in, day out and
an objective guy, how are the Colts viewed right now?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
That's a good question. I you know, I think they
were kind of a laughing stop going into the season.
It felt like and you know, you you bank on
Daniel Jones. And but I think the reaction I've heard
just you know, listening to podcasts about trades and and
kind of just you know, canvassing Twitter, I'd say outside
of Indianapolis, I think they're getting pretty criticized for this
deal because what they're what they're doing, and it's a
(08:48):
statement that they believe in Daniel Jones, and you know
it's a risky proposition, as the Giants saw. So I
think they're getting criticism for that. But the Colts believe
in what they have there. You know, they're whatever, what
are they seven too? And just field like a team
that can go on a run. So I don't blame
them for doing it, especially because I personally am pretty
high on Sus Gardner.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Well, thanks for stopping by. We again appreciate your time
and your insights, and we will run into you down
the road. As they say, have a good one, yeah
you two guys.
We bring in our next guest, Zach Rosenblad, who covers
the team for the Athletic and is kind enough to
get up early and join us on the fan morning
show in the Payless Lookers hotline this morning. Good morning, Zach.
Kept you busy yesterday, didn't we.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, they always do. It's nothing new around here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
How's this going down in New York right now?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, you know, I think, as a Dust has said
a little bit, I think the general reaction has been
positive because of the amount of draft capital they got,
not only with this trade, but with the Quinn Williams
on with the Cowboys and just kind of reset the
board and now they have five first round picks of
the next two years. So but in the moment, you know,
and even now still, honestly, it was pretty shocking. I
(00:38):
don't think there's any inkling that Sauces available or even
potentially going to get traded. I mean, he just signed
a new contract, so like that. The moment it happened,
it was one of those moments where you're looking at
the tweets and making sure they're not fake.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, that's certainly the case, at least a mind as
well as Zach and again thanks for joining us on
the show. So reading through your story this morning, and
we collabed on a bunch of stuff yesterday. A lot
of Slack messages after that trade went down. But one
of the things you were able to report is that
this was not some last minute approach from the Colts.
This was something that had been working. They had been
(01:11):
working toward over a number of weeks. So what can
you tell us about just the process of first reaching
out to the Jets about Sauce and then getting it
over the finished line to finally get him in the
Colts at uniform.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, so, I mean, I think it was more like
a couple of weeks ago. They just had conversations like
all teams, do you know, the Cults were calling around
the league looking for a corner and they called the
Jets to ask them about their corner backs. Not Jets sauce,
but Sauce was the main part of the conversation. And
the Jets were like, yeah, we're not really training him
unless somebody blows us away with an offer, and the
Colts were like okay, And then you know, you get
(01:45):
back to now this week and the Colts call again
and they start offering a little bit more, and as
they keep having more conversations, now offer more and more,
to the point where darreon Moodie the Jets GM couldn't
really say no anymore. And you know, they agreed on
the draft pick, and then Mouji wanted to throw in
Adi Mitchell. I think he was really high on his potential,
so you add him into that, and and uh, you know,
(02:08):
Muji kind of interestingly said in his press conference yesterday
and this was kind of you could kind of see
it at the time, but I didn't think they would
train him right away, but they structured in a way
that would allow them to trade him if the opportunity arose, essentially,
which is pretty crazy thing to admit, not crazy, but
pretty interesting thing to admit, because you know, that's the
star player, and that's someone who you built around, and
you just announced that your cornerstone a few months ago.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Zach, thanks for the time this morning. If we had
this conversation yesterday at nine oh five, and I told
you saus Gardner was about to get traded, you would
have thought the compensation. Compensation would have looked like what.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Man, That's a good question. Multiple firsts, for sure, like
that's what I would have thought, like that, Yeah, yeah,
probably yeah, I mean, I but it's hard for me
to even answer that because I just like, it wasn't
a thing not even considered. So, you know, like if
you asked me like the same question about Garrett Wilson
right now, I don't know that i'd have a good answer.
Probably two first three first in a player or something
(03:05):
like something crazy like that. So you know, it's rare
that non quarterbacks get traded for multiple firsts. It takes
a really special player. I do think Sauce is maybe
better than some of the perception that's gotten out about
him at this point. He is a flawed player, like
he's not Patrick Sartan, but I think he's been one of,
if not the top five best corners in the NFL
over the last five years.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So could you delve a little bit deeper into that?
And I hate to throw out letter grades, but I
am a son of two teachers, so I tend to
kind of do that. You know, maybe early in his
career he was what a plus type of player, and
maybe I don't know, this year, it's you know, a
minus B plus if you want to get super technical,
there and also could you hit on the how much
shadowing did he do for you know, a variety of
(03:46):
defenses he played for.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, so I'll answer the second part first. You know,
with the Robert Solid defense, they had their guys staying
on their sides, so they had Sas Gardner on one side,
d d Red on the other. And he almost never
traveled with this new THEE he was traveling a little
bit more and still wasn't like one hundred percent of
the time, but he was traveling and he was doing
a pretty good job of it. And then oh, you
asked about like the grades, so I'd say, yeah, A plus.
(04:10):
The first two years, I mean, in all pro, your
first year is in the NFL, is is pretty crazy.
And I think in retrospect, Jets fans, in realistes spoiler,
they were And what that did was it raised the expectations.
So the last two years, where I'd say he was
a BB plus, probably they thought that he was bad
and that was not the case. The reality of Sauce
is like fans, not only Jets fans, but especially Jets fans,
(04:31):
focused on the things that he doesn't do, which is
he doesn't really get interceptions and he hasn't historically have
been a great tackler, but they don't focus on the
thing that he does do, which is keep the receiver
from catching the ball, and he does it as well
as anybody in the NFL. Quarterbacks do not throw it
in his direction, which is why it harder for him
to get picked a lot of times, because you know,
I think he think he averages it a catch against
(04:53):
him every twenty snaps, which is the best rate in
the NFL in terms of like how how rarely he
gives up catch and in terms of targets, he's like
top ten this year as well. So quarterbacks don't throw
it in his direction. And you know, when the Colts
get healthy and they have trevarious awards, it's gonna be
very interesting to see how that goes. Zach.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I'm sure you haven't been able to catch up with
Sauce just yet, and I'll probably do it on my
end here if he's available today in Indianapolis. But do
you get the sense that he even thought that was
a possibility on his end or that he was open
to that idea. I know he tweeted about, you know,
all love to New York, but it is quite the
flip from you know, a couple months ago being the
(05:33):
highest paid, richest contract in cornerback history.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, you know when I understand he did not see
it coming at all. I don't think it was something
that was really broached to him at all. But I
think he'll take it in stride. I think he's somebody
that is highly motivated already anyway. He's somebody who has
been taking a lot of the losing that he's had
to deal with pretty bad. And I imagine that he's
as he sits down and thinks about what's going on
(05:58):
in Indianapolis and how good they are right now, Like,
he hasn't been on a team with this kind of record.
The best the Jets were with him were six and
three to start the twenty twenty two season, and then
they won seven games that whole season. So I imagine he's
pretty excited for the opportunity to play meeting for football
at this time of the year.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
A flight Plan that is a podcast listened to last
night was Zach Rosenblatt from The Athletic. He joins us here, Zach,
I thought I heard you, and if I misheard you,
I don't know, blame it on my dumb brain. But
did you say at some point this offseason you went
to Detroit to do a little bit more of a
future story on Sauce.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, I shared, did it. So I went to Detroit.
The main goal was to do in Aaron Glenn story,
which I did, but while I was there, I wanted
to also dig into Sauce in his background. I went
to his high school. I walked through the school with
the AD. I talked to his coach. I talked to,
you know, one of his old teammates. Like I was
getting ready to do it. I focused on Aaron Glenn
won the lead end of the season, and my plan
was to write the Sauce story early in the season
(06:52):
after a win. And so, as you can imagine, the
Jets just got the first win a few days ago
and Sauce wasn't even playing. So I just like have
not had the opportunity to write it. And then, you know,
as it happens in this job, sometimes you put a
lot of work into something and then you know, events
happen that keep you from me able to pursue it.
But maybe I'll write it down the line. If the
if the Colts ca on like a Super Bowl run.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
This year, maybe a snippet of your boots on the
ground reporting I selfishly, I love to see Sauce Gardner
now all of a sudden obsessed with the game of golf.
But I'm sure you your boots on the ground led
to some other things there.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, so I'd said. The funny thing about him was,
you know, he's a guy that they had him at
receiver in early in high school and he was like
buried on the depth chart. They had a cornerback that
like got injured, and you know, I have desperation. They're like,
maybe we should just try Sauce there. They throw him
out there. He like dominates that game and he never
looks back. And one of his coaches told me that,
like before that it happened like he has all these
(07:46):
old dms on Twitter from Sauce where Sauce is like, coach,
I think you should play me, like I think I'm
pretty good. I think your guys are making mistake not
playing me. Like he had the confidence like that, the
coach said, he like he had confidence before he even
had the skills necessarily, Like he just believed in self
completely from the beginning, and and then you know he
was he was off for the race when he got Cincinnati,
I don't even think you ever let up a touchdown.
And and yeah, you know, he's a guy that you
(08:07):
guys are gonna love there in that lot, especially the
media for the locker room wise, the fans will like
him until they get mad about him by any interceptions,
I guess, like Jets fans, I'm.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Just curious before we let you go Zach Is as
a follower of the NFL day in, day out and
an objective guy, how are the Colts viewed right now?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
That's a good question. I you know, I think they
were kind of a laughing stop going into the season.
It felt like and you know, you you bank on
Daniel Jones. And but I think the reaction I've heard
just you know, listening to podcasts about trades and and
kind of just you know, canvassing Twitter, I'd say outside
of Indianapolis, I think they're getting pretty criticized for this
deal because what they're what they're doing, and it's a
(08:48):
statement that they believe in Daniel Jones, and you know
it's a risky proposition, as the Giants saw. So I
think they're getting criticism for that. But the Colts believe
in what they have there. You know, they're whatever, what
are they seven too? And just field like a team
that can go on a run. So I don't blame
them for doing it, especially because I personally am pretty
high on Sus Gardner.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Well, thanks for stopping by. We again appreciate your time
and your insights, and we will run into you down
the road. As they say, have a good one, yeah
you two guys.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.