INDIANAPOLIS — Sauce Gardner says the Colts’ massive draft gamble does not change the way he sees himself. The 24-year-old cornerback, acquired last November in a deal that sent two first-round picks and wide receiver AD Mitchell to the New York Jets, reminded reporters this week that he was already a first-rounder twice over.
“I’m the first-round pick. Twice,” Gardner said Tuesday during the Colts’ OTAs. When asked about the price Indianapolis paid to get him, he answered, “It ain’t no pressure,” and added, “If I gotta be the first-round pick the next two years, I’m gonna work regardless, (even) if that wasn’t the case.”
That trade is why the Colts opened Thursday’s NFL Draft without a first-round selection, a rare setup for a team that has tried to build around short-term swings before. Indianapolis sent its 2026 and 2027 first-round picks to the Jets for Gardner, and now has seven picks in this year’s draft, including two Day 2 selections at Nos. 47 and 78.
The last time the Colts went into a draft without a first-round pick was 2022, when they traded Nos. 42 and 122 to the Minnesota Vikings for Nos. 53, 77 and 192. That move brought in Alec Pierce, Jelani Woods and Bernhard Raimann, and the return looks better now than it did then: Pierce signed a four-year, $114 million deal last month, and Raimann got a four-year, $100 million extension last year.
General manager Chris Ballard said Monday at his pre-draft news conference that the Colts would be “aggressive” in moving around the draft board, then added that aggression does not have to mean climbing up. “Don’t misconstrue (being) aggressive for moving up,” Ballard said. “To me, being aggressive can also be moving back and then moving around and acquiring more picks and then moving it.”
The timing matters because Indianapolis still has obvious holes at defensive end and linebacker. Kwity Paye has joined the Las Vegas Raiders in free agency, and Zaire Franklin has been the Colts’ starting middle linebacker for the last four years, leaving the defense short on proven help even as the club waits until Day 2 to make its first pick.
For Gardner, the spotlight is part of the arrangement. The Colts paid for a player they believe can anchor the defense for years, and the draft’s opening night showed the cost in plain view: no first-round card, just the long reach of the trade and the expectation that one of the league’s best young corners will make it worth the wait.