Sauce Gardner Trade From Cap Standpoint

The New York Jets have traded Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts for Adonai Mitchell, the Colts 2026 first-round pick, and the Colts 2027 first-round pick.

Let’s take a quick look at the particulars from a cap standpoint:

Sauce Garnder

2025 P5 salary paid: $555,556
2025 Prorated Signing Bonus (including rookie deal): $8,126,963
Total dead for 2025: $8,682,519
Original Cap Charge: $9,376,963
Total 2025 Savings: $625,000

2026 Original Cap Number: $12.25 million
2026 Dead Cap Charge: $11 million
Total 2025-26 savings for Sauce Garnder: $1.875 million

Adonai Mitchell

2025 base salary remaining: $565,366
2026 base salary: $1,130,731
Total for 2025-26: $1,696,097

In the end, the Jets only save $178,903 in cap space over the next two seasons in this trade. Now that they have two 2026 first-round picks, that wipes out the savings anyway.

The Jets have acquired two wide receivers and temporarily saved some cap space. All-in-all, it’s a good trade, cap-wise, for the Jets.