Colts

Sauce Gardner enters his second season with the Colts after being traded from the Jets in November 2025. Gardner reflected on the days before being dealt from New York, saying he didn’t want to join another losing team. 

“I was like, ‘Please let it be my ideal situation. I don’t want to go to a losing team. I don’t want to go to a team on the other side of the world,’” Gardner said, via Nathan Brown of the Indianapolis Star. 

Gardner doesn’t think they played as a team with the Jets, and players were more focused on individual goals. 

“We had a lot of individual talent (in New York), but we weren’t playing as a team all the way,” Gardner said. “I remember my rookie year, we were (playing as a team), but I feel like it got to a point where it was more individuals and people more worried about individual goals.”

Gardner was glad the Colts pursued him at the time. 

“It was less about the Jets wanting to trade me and more about the Colts wanting me to be here, so that’s truly a blessing,” Gardner said. 

Colts 

The Colts re-signed QB Daniel Jones to a two-year contract this offseason and revived his career following his time with the Giants. Jones reflected on being cut by New York and signing with the Vikings’ practice squad in November 2024. 

“I wasn’t playing well, and things weren’t going our way,” Jones said. “I remember the game in Germany was tough, and then, in the bye week, you kind of got an idea of what might happen.”

Jones said that he wasn’t allowed to practice or work out during his final days with the Giants.

“I couldn’t practice, I couldn’t work out, I couldn’t really do anything,” Jones said. “So, I was just kind of there… You’re not expecting to be dealing with all that and looking for a new place to go at that point in the season.”

As for his season-ending Achilles injury in Week 14 of last year, Jones said he was having the “most fun” throughout his NFL career before going down.  

“At first, you’re just in disbelief. You’re like, ‘No way this is happening right now. Not now.’ There’s just disappointment. I think the season to that point was the most fun I had playing football in the NFL. We had played well… I think you realize pretty quickly you’re not going to be a part of that anymore. And that was the toughest part.”

Jaguars

The Jaguars lost 36-29 to the Texans after once holding a 17-0 lead in November 2025. Trevor Lawrence reflected on the game, saying it was a turning point in his communication with HC Liam Coen. 

“We talked all season, and after that game especially, we did a great job of communicating,” Lawrence said, via Albert Breer of SI. “And I give Coach a lot of credit because it’s our first year together; he’s trying to get a feel for me, and I’m getting a feel for him. And we’re trying to find the best way to get our offense going because it wasn’t clicking yet. So we had a lot of really good conversations on Mondays and Tuesdays in his office after games, especially after the Houston game. And I just felt like, I don’t feel like I’m playing as well as I know I can play. I don’t feel like our offense is operating great right now. I feel like we’re leaving a lot of stuff on the field. And I just told him, basically, I don’t think I’m playing as quickly as I need to be playing mentally. I don’t think I’m trusting myself and just letting it rip. I feel like there’s a lot of moving parts pre-snap that I’m thinking about and not able to go play.”

Coen said they began tweaking things with their offense after the loss to Houston.

“We started to tweak things to tighten the menu of the pass game to things he does at a high level,” Coen said. “And what are the areas that he needs to improve on? Maybe some of those can go on the shelf for the offseason. And also, it was like, in pure-progression reads, it’s, All right, one, two, three, four. You’re just exhausting it. It’s not a coverage read. So we also said, All right, one, two, go. Start using your legs more. I think that helped allow him to play more freely. He was loose because he wasn’t worried about, before the snap, going to number four. It was, I’ve got to get all the way back to this guy, maybe I can, I don’t know, and is the protection going to hold up? You’ve got a lot of things going on in your mind. So, man, let’s try to trim the inventory, tighten up what he does well, what our wideouts do well, what our tight ends do well. And then, Hey, man, when one and two aren’t there, let’s start using your legs.”

Lawrence said that extending plays was a big part of him putting things together in 2025. 

“You train your mind so much in the offseason to get through your progressions, especially when you’re learning a new system, like, How can I get through my progressions as quickly as possible and find the completion?” Lawrence said. “But then the real element of football that comes up, that doesn’t come up all spring or training camp because you can’t get hit, is the ability to extend the play, to leave the pocket. And that’s something you have to remind yourself of because, as I said, in practice, you’re not getting hit. You work on these progressions so much, and you hang in the pocket a lot longer than you typically can in a game because the pass rush can’t hit you. That’s a big part of it.”