When the New York Jets selected Sauce Gardner with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 draft, he was clearly going to be a starting cornerback from the get-go. However, the Jets still made Gardner “earn” the job. Not only did they insist on calling him “Ahmad” until he earned his stripes, but Sauce took second-team reps in camp.
The same applied to No. 10 pick Garrett Wilson. Wilson found himself buried on the depth chart and actually started the season as the WR4. It took just one Week 1 catch-and-run to change that.