{"id":746693,"date":"2026-07-06T15:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/746693\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T15:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:32:07","slug":"jets-cb-azareyeh-thomas-wearing-no-1-creates-a-different-set-of-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/746693\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets CB Azareye&#8217;h Thomas: Wearing No. 1 creates a different set of expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When the Jets traded Sauce Gardner to the Colts last season, they dealt away both their No. 1 cornerback and the player who wore No. 1 on his jersey. <\/p>\n<p>Second-year corner Azareye\u2019h Thomas has his eyes on taking over both roles. The third-round pick wore No. 23 while playing in 12 games before landing on injured reserve as a rookie and he has switched to Gardner\u2019s former number for his second season. <\/p>\n<p>Thomas said that the switch is indicative of the expectations that he has for himself in 2026. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a different type of pressure, a different set of expectations when you walk out there and <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorkjets.com\/news\/azareyeh-thomas-feeling-confident-heading-into-year-2-07-06-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">you\u2019re number one<\/a>,\u201d Thomas said, via the team\u2019s website. \u201cIf you\u2019re number one, you\u2019re number one and you got to play like it. But as I walk out there, I\u2019m not thinking like that but of course it\u2019s in the back of my mind like I\u2019ve got to perform, like I said though, that\u2019s a given. But I\u2019m no longer walking out there with that baggage on my back because I know I\u2019m playing for an audience of one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Jets signed Nahshon Wright and drafted DeAngelo Ponds to add to a cornerback group that brings back Brandon Stephens in addition to Thomas. No one in that group has earned the accolades Gardner did during his Jets tenure, but they\u2019ll all get opportunities to show that the Jets are back on track after an interception-less 2025 season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Jets traded Sauce Gardner to the Colts last season, they dealt away both their No. 1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-746693","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\/746693","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=746693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}