INDIANAPOLIS -- Sauce Gardner's New York Jets lost 66% of their games during his tenure with the club from 2022 to Week 9 of 2025. It was a cascade of misery, with New York posting the fourth-worst record (20-39) in the NFL during that period.
It's why Gardner, a former All-Pro cornerback, was so eager to join the Indianapolis Colts when he was traded midway through last season. In a remarkable shift, he found himself playing a key role for the team with the best record in the NFL at the time (7-2).
These days, things couldn't be more different.
The Colts won their first game following the trade, and they haven't won since. The losing continued Sunday night with a 33-30 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
"It doesn't sit good," Gardner said. "I'd be lying if I told you it did. We've got to turn it around.
"It's definitely something that I was excited about. Excited to win, expecting to win. When I got here, like I said, we've got the guys, we've got the players, we've got the coaches. We've just got to actually win when the clock hits zero, zero. It's definitely crazy, though."
The Colts are on a nine-game streak that dates to a Week 12 loss to Kansas City last season, also in overtime. That was the start of a season-ending seven-game losing streak due in part to a rash of injuries.
But now, even with quarterback Daniel Jones back from his Achilles tear, Gardner mostly healthy (he was injured off and on late last season) and veteran defensive tackle DeForest Buckner recovered from neck surgery, little has changed.
No team has a longer current losing streak than Indianapolis (0-2).
Pressure is mounting.
"We are right there," coach Shane Steichen said. "We have to find a way to win at the end. That was one of those games. It is a freaking hard-ass league, and you have got to find a way to win these tight games."
The backdrop behind all of this is the intense scrutiny on Steichen, general manager Chris Ballard and many of the veteran players. Extensive changes and firings are considered likely if the Colts don't show improvement in 2026. Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is on record saying that expectations of progress are in place during this, her second full season as the team's primary leader alongside her two sisters.
Steichen has a 25-28 record since his hiring in 2023, and the Colts haven't made the playoffs since 2020. They haven't won the AFC South since 2014, three years before Ballard was hired.
Now, in Year 10 under Ballard, the Colts find themselves with a defense that is off to a historically poor start. Just one team in NFL history has allowed more total yardage in Weeks 1 and 2 than the Colts' 1,023 yards. The 2016 Oakland Raiders allowed 1,035 yards. Indianapolis has allowed more than 500 yards of offense in each of its two games this season.
All of which makes winning unlikely. Winning is a feeling the Colts haven't tasted in far too long.
"I don't think we even won any preseason games," safety Cam Bynum said. "We've just got to get back to that expectation of winning and that swag we had in the first half of last season when we were rolling. That's just a mindset."
As for Gardner, he's playing well. He battled through a rib injury Sunday, sensing the game was slipping away. He has been solid this season, targeted five times on 78 coverage snaps and allowing four catches for 57 yards. His target rate is just 6.4%, well below his career low 9.3% in 2023.
But he has nothing to show for it. And that's tough to swallow for a guy who thought winning was in his future.
"I was just trying to make myself stay on that field, do whatever it takes for us to win," Gardner said. "And we still came up short."
