Two of the NFL’s top shutdown cornerbacks will be on opposite sidelines Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, and Sauce Gardner says he has followed all aspects of Patrick Surtain II’s career with the Broncos. Gardner, a first-team All-Pro in each of his first two seasons with the Jets, knows his time for a massive payday will come, as it did earlier this year for Surtain, who joined the league one year sooner. “I’m always watching, and watching film, in general.
He always shows up on there. He’s a dog,” Gardner said of Surtain before practice Thursday in Florham Park. “He’s been doing this for a little minute.
Every week, it’s the highlight, even when the ball’s not getting thrown his way. He’s a lockdown cornerback, for sure. “And he just got paid, well-deserving.
He deserved that for sure.” Surtain, a two-time Pro Bowler in his first three seasons in Denver, inked a four-year extension worth $96 million with $77.5 million guaranteed in early September — making him the highest-paid defensive back in the game.
Gardner is signed through 2025 plus a club option for a fifth year on his original four-year, $33.45 million rookie contract after he was taken with the third-overall pick out of Cincinnati in 2022. He is not eligible for an extension until after this season, as are his two fellow Jets ’22 first-rounders: wide receiver Garrett Wilson and injured defensive end Jermaine Johnson .
“Nah, I don’t even [think about it],” Gardner said when a.
