Measurables
UNIVERSITY- Cincinnati AGE- 21 CLASS- JR
HEIGHT- 6’2 WEIGHT- 188 ARM LENGTH-
40 Time- 3 CONE- VERTICAL- BROAD JUMP- BENCH PRESS-
Overview
Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner gained his nickname from his youth sport coaches for his sweet feet as well as his borderline overuse of sauces with his meals. Gardner played his high school ball at Martin Luther King High School in Detroit, Michigan where he played both CB and WR. His older brother played at the lower collegiate level. As a true freshman in 2019 Gardner played in all 13 games, starting the last 6. He finished the season with 31 tackles, 11 PBUs, 3 INTs, returning 2 of those for TDs. Gardner earned First-Team All-American Athletic Conference, Third-Team All-America by some publications and was an All-Freshman honoree. In 2020 he started in 9 games and totaled 28 tackles, 9 PBUs and 3 INTs. He again earned First Team All-AAC honors as well as All-American honors from many publications. In 2021 as a junior Gardner started in 13 games for one of the nation’s top pass defenses and an unprecedented season for Cincinnati that ended in a loss to Bama in the semifinals of the CF playoffs. He tallied 40 tackles, 5 TFLs, 3 sacks, 4 PBUs and 3 INTs. He earned Consensus All-American honors, AAC Defensive Player of the Year which of course leads to First-Team All-AAC for his 3rd straight season.
Strengths
Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner is an interesting nickname because I think he does add a little extra needed sauce(attitude) to a defense. Gardner is very tall and long armed for the CB position. Cincinnati used him as the boundary corner, their defense gave quite a bit of various coverages but Gardner primarily played in a cover-2 look underneath. Like any of your favorite BBQ sauces, Sauce Garder is sticky, in coverage. Gardner has incredibly quick feet for his size and shows a really nice burst to close on the ball at the catch point. He’s a very agile mover in open space, moves well in his back-pedal and laterally in zone coverage. For his size he’s able to change directions well and he shows good balance to stay in phase with the WR across the field. What Gardner really enjoys though is playing press, this is where his length truly shines. Sauce lines up right across from his opponent, probably close enough to where they can smell each other’s breath. He then uses that great length of his to strike constant jabs into the chest of WRs and knock them off their route. His hands and body positioning work in great sync as he keeps great balance in his coverage reps. Gardner uses his physicality off the line and carries it throughout the route to remain in the hip pocket of the WR. Gardner uses his length well to swat down balls at the catch point. His instincts really shine in zone coverage, he shows great timing/patience on when to drive on underneath routes and when to sit back. This allows him to cover both intermediate routes that fall into his zone and underneath routes in the same rep. His ability to attack the catch point with his burst to the ball and length make it really difficult to feel confident about making a completion. Oftentimes QBs don’t even bother going his way because of how well he’s able to cover ground in zone. He does a good job of using the sideline to his advantage down the field. Gardner never finds himself out of place and there’s a lot to be said for that. He shows excellent body control and soft hands to make unusual interceptions away from his body. As a run defender Gardner fights extremely well to maintain containment responsibility on the outside. He fights well through blocks from the WRs and is a very willing tackler most of the time. He shows good technique of staying square to the target and wrapping up the ball carrier. Gardner was used a few times as a blitzer in the pass game, he showed decent agility to get around pass blockers and force pressure and even sacks at times. It’s hard not to love the competitive nature that Sauce Gardner plays with. He’s talking smack to anybody and everybody that’s willing to hear or unwilling, he doesn’t seem to mind either way. He has special teams experience as well.
Weaknesses/Room for Improvement
Garnder is rather thin for what you would want as an outside CB. This leads to questions regarding his ability to be as effective in press against bigger NFL WRs. There’s one rep I have in mind where he got ragdolled by a TE. Additionally how will he be affected by bigger bodies who are able to box him out. There’s really a lot of aspects of Gardner’s game that makes him a little tougher to project than your typical top CB prospect. Cinci plays a heavy dose of zone where Gardner really wasn’t tested down the field often. There’s questions about his ball skills and his ability to turn and locate the ball down the field. I’m not saying he can’t do it but we just didn’t get the opportunity to see him tested very often. All credit to him in this case. I believe he has good long speed, not great. Overall for his size his change of direction is very good but you see some stiffness when he has to turn and run with WRs. I have my concerns about how much he uses contact to stay in tight with WRs down the field. He can be excessively grabby downfield, which isn’t a penalty in college but in the NFL he will become a penalty merchant. The thing is I feel he is athletic and skilled enough to stay tight in coverage without the grabbing but he will be forced to cut that out at the next level. He did shy away from contact at times in the run game. You would like to see him come with a little more force as a tackler. There’s not really much concern about him as a zone cover corner but we could see some struggle at the next level in man.
Scheme Fit
Zone Press Heavy Defense, perhaps a Tampa-2 would make a lot of sense. Outside Corner.
Round Grade
Late First Early Second Round