When Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard stunned the NFL by acquiring cornerback Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets at the trade deadline, he made it pretty clear that the future is now for the Colts.
Since Gardner is still a very young player, this move wasn’t quite as drastic as deals pulled off by the Bucs and Rams in recent years. Both those teams went all in on aging QBs in (successful) pursuit of Super Bowl glory.
But Ballard did give up a couple of first-round draft picks, along with 2024 second-round pick Adonai Mitchell, to acquire Gardner.