The Jets and Sauce Gardner have worked out a new deal. On the surface, it\u2019s the best deal ever signed by an NFL cornerback.<\/p>\n
At a deeper level, it\u2019s open to interpretation.<\/p>\n
First, the details. Here they are, per a source with knowledge of the terms:<\/p>\n
1. Signing bonus: $13.75 million, paid in full by September 30, 2025.<\/p>\n
2. 2025 base salary: $1.25 million, fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n
3. 2026 option bonus: $20 million, fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n
4. 2026 workout bonus: $250,000, fully guaranteed (but must be earned).<\/p>\n
5. 2026 base salary: $5.25 million, fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n
6. 2027 option bonus: $10 million, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in March 2026.<\/p>\n
7. 2027 workout bonus: $250,000, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in March 2026 (but must be earned).<\/p>\n
8. 2027 base salary: $13.953 million, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in March 2026.<\/p>\n
9. 2027 per-game roster bonus: $750,000 total, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in March 2026 (but must be earned).<\/p>\n
10. 2028 workout bonus: $250,000, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in March 2027 (but must be earned).<\/p>\n
11. 2028 base salary: $19.2 million, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in March 2027.<\/p>\n
12. 2028 per-game roster bonus: $750,000 total, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in March 2027 (but must be earned).<\/p>\n
13. 2029 workout bonus: $250,000.<\/p>\n
14. 2029 base salary: $29.1 million.<\/p>\n
15. 2030 per-game roster bonus: $750,000 total.<\/p>\n
16. 2030 workout bonus: $250,000.<\/p>\n
17. 2030 base salary: $29.1 million.<\/p>\n
18. 2030 per-game roster bonus: $750,000 total.<\/p>\n
The new-money APY of $30.1 million beats Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. by $100,000 per year. However, there are some key differences.<\/p>\n
First, Stingley signed a three-year extension. He\u2019s under contract for five years, not six.<\/p>\n
Second, Stingley has better guarantees than Gardner, despite being under contract for one fewer year.<\/p>\n
For Stingley, the total guarantee is $89 million, with $48 million fully guaranteed at signing, $68 million fully guaranteed by 2026, and the full $89 million vesting by 2027.<\/p>\n
For Gardner, the total guarantee is $85.65 million, with $40.5 million fully guaranteed at signing, $65.45 million fully guaranteed by 2026, and the full $85.65 million vesting by 2027.<\/p>\n
Stingley also has better cash flow in the early years, with $6 million more in 2026 and $7.3 million more through 2027.<\/p>\n
One last point. Stingley pushed the bar up by $5 million per year, over Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn. Gardner has nudged it by only $100,000 per year.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still a great deal for Gardner, who had a down year in 2024. The new regime easily could have waited until 2026 to re-do the deal. Of course, if\/when Gardner had gotten back to his form of 2022-23, it would have cost a lot more if they had opted to kick the can for a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jets and Sauce Gardner have worked out a new deal. On the surface, it\u2019s the best deal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-16556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}