Darrelle Revis is the best cornerback in Jets history. Is Sauce Gardner on a similar path?

There’s a YouTube video of New York Jets practice clips from 2011, 8 minutes and 37 seconds, entirely on mute. It’s a series of Darrelle Revis one-on-one reps where he’s battling various Jets wide receivers. In total, the video includes more than 40 throws against him, many shown multiple times, from different angles. It’s not the most thrilling viewing experience.

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But Jets cornerback D.J. Reed loves it — and watches it often. “It’s teach tape,” Reed said. “That’s how I want to play.”

Revis doesn’t win every rep in the reel, but he wins most of them. On some reps, he’s swatting passes away. In others, he’s stuffing receivers at the line of scrimmage or draping them in coverage to such a degree that, on a few occasions, the quarterback doesn’t even bother throwing the ball. Revis’ reps like these in practice used to draw a crowd. The Jets could’ve charged for the practice tickets.

“I used to just go watch him,” said former general manager Mike Tannenbaum.

It was like that when Revis was a rookie, and through to the end of his career — and why his practice habits are often the first thing his former teammates and coaches bring up. Tannenbaum saw that intensity right away — “Day one, practice one,” he said — and quickly figured out the Jets had made the right decision when, in desperation to find a quality cornerback, they traded up in the 2007 NFL Draft to get Revis.

“We needed a corner in the worst way,” Tannenbaum said. “And he was, without question, special.”

The desperation they felt trying to get him was even more pronounced in their efforts in trying to replace him over the years after he left the organization, first in 2013 when he was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and again after the 2016 season, at the end of his career. They drafted Dee Milliner in the first round in 2013, and he was out of the league before the end of his rookie contract. They signed Trumaine Johnson to a $72.5 million deal in 2018, and he was cut after two miserable seasons. Many other Jets cornerbacks have tried to fit into Revis’ shoes, too, and tripped on the shoelaces.

This week, Revis will be enshrined as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, a deserving tribute for one of the NFL’s greatest players. It’s fitting that it’s happening now, just as the Jets finally feel like they have found a suitable replacement, someone capable of walking in his shoes: Sauce Gardner, a first-team All-Pro and Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2022.

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“When you join a team and become part of something, there’s always going to be someone that did it before you,” Gardner told The Athletic. “Don’t try to fill their shoes. Wear your own.”

Revis Island is headed to his rightful place in the Hall of Fame 👏

"You're talking about a tier of cornerbacks … Darrelle Revis can go up there and park his car right beside Deion Sanders." —@RandyMoss

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) February 12, 2023

When Revis’ Jets career began, Gardner was only 6 years old, a young boy with dreams of making it out of a tough neighborhood in Detroit. That year, his pee-wee football coach nicknamed him “Sauce” — his real first name is Ahmad — and it stuck. “I treat it like my alter ego,” he said.

When Gardner held up his Jets jersey on the NFL Draft stage last year, he flashed a smile, a shiny “SAUCE” chain draped around his neck. Coach Robert Saleh joyfully screamed into the phone when the Jets told Gardner he was their pick. That’s also how Tannenbaum and former Jets coach Eric Mangini felt in in 2007, when they got Revis.

Shortly after Gardner joined the Jets, he connected with Revis. They spoke on the phone.

“He just told me I was going to love it” in New York, Gardner said. “He said there isn’t much to it. You’re a football player; just go out there and do what you do. You put that work in, and when the lights get the brightest, you’re going to resort back to your coaching and your practices. You can’t hide from it. The work you put in, that’s what’s going to show when the lights are brightest.”

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In January 2010, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg hosted a pep rally in Times Square — on a Thursday, during rush hour — and declared that Manhattan would (unofficially) be renamed “Revis Island” until the Jets lost in the playoffs. They made it to the AFC Championship Game.

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Clearly, there’s a different sort of attention that comes with being a star in New York. Gardner is feeling that now, coming off his historic rookie season. Many have crumbled under the weight of all that expectation. Revis embraced it.

“I stood up to the hype, and now I am the hype,” Revis said in a recent podcast interview. “That really sums it up for me.”

Terry Bradway, a Jets executive, called Tannenbaum from the Pittsburgh airport in 2007, frantic after leaving Revis’ pro day workout at the University of Pittsburgh. The Jets needed an upgrade at cornerback, and Bradway knew what they had to do about it.

We need to go get him. He won’t be there at No. 21.

“That call really got my wheels spinning,” Tannenbaum said.

He’d had only Leon Hall and Aaron Ross graded as first-rounders at cornerback in that class since there were questions about the talent level of wide receivers Revis went against in the Big East.

“He was an unknown,” Tannenbaum said.

But Revis’ pro day performance changed the calculus, and Tannenbaum traded up to the 14th pick from No. 21. It didn’t take long for him to see he had made the right decision — Revis’ practice intensity was there right away.

“He would call out receivers. He would get in their grill, and it was on at practice,” Tannenbaum said. “It was just really impressive to watch. I always tell people: You want to be great at something, it’s the little things. Darrelle at practice, it was just impressive to watch.”

If Revis lost a one-on-one matchup in a drill, “the next guy couldn’t go until Revis won,” said Jerome Henderson, a defensive backs coach in Revis’ first two years with the Jets.

“From day one, he wasn’t afraid of anybody, afraid of any situation,” Henderson said. “Any drill he was in, it had to be perfect. … He just had great instincts and awareness and when you add that with his work ethic and his want-to — it’s almost like he wanted to reach in and eat your heart.”

Welcome to Revis Island. 🏝

Darrelle Revis is the highest-earning cornerback in the history of the NFL and these highlights show you why. #TakeFlight

🧵⬇️

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) July 18, 2023

His first interception came in his eighth game, a Week 8 matchup against the Buffalo Bills. Trent Edwards threw the pass.

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“Was I really the first? Oh boy,” Edwards said recently, laughing.

Henderson got a sense of Revis’ competitive fire in practice, but it really clicked that he was coaching someone special before a game early in 2008, Revis’ second season. During warmups, an opposing wide receiver — “I don’t want to say his name, but he was one of the top receivers in our league, a big, imposing guy,” Henderson said — came over and tried to intimidate the Jets’ defensive backs, talking trash. That angered Henderson, but Revis turned to Henderson, smiled and calmly asked, “Coach, don’t you realize he’s going to get what they all get? I’m about to go whup his ass.”

Henderson laughed.

“I was like all right, here we go,” Henderson said. “And then, he absolutely beat his ass. You knew he was going to be really, really good early on, but in that moment, I’m like, ‘Oh, wow.’ That was one of the top receivers in the league, and he was just, like, I’m gonna go beat his ass — and then he did it!”

Revis made the Pro Bowl in 2008, his second year in the league, and then Rex Ryan was hired as head coach, replacing Mangini. When Ryan schemed the defense around Revis, leaving him alone on an island with the other team’s best receiver — hence, “Revis Island” — things went to another level. He had his best season in 2009: six interceptions, 31 pass deflections and a second-place finish in Defensive Player of the Year voting, losing out to Packers corner Charles Woodson.

“My first year (2008), I was playing opposite him for half the year, and they weren’t throwing to his side. It was a lot more work for me,” said Dwight Lowery, also a Jets cornerback. “We would roll our entire coverage away from him. That’s something that I don’t feel like has ever been done. There’s always debates on who’s the greatest — but rolling your entire defense away from one guy knowing he could take somebody away was just not happening anywhere else.”

Edwards remembers what the week of preparation would look like heading into a game against the Jets. The Bills would run through most of the starters on the Jets on Wednesday morning — but they’d wind up spending most of the time talking about Revis.

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“It was always: Just don’t take any risks,” Edwards said. “If you wanted to complete a ball on Darrelle, it’s not a clean window to throw into. You have to be perfect. There’s no margin for error. There was never a time where it’s, like, ‘Oh, (the receiver’s) open now, I have to get it to him.’ (Revis) was, from the first snap to the last one, all over him.”

Darrelle Revis is getting kind of bored.

That was a headline in New York Magazine in 2011. The point: Revis was shutting down his side of the field in such a way that quarterbacks were avoiding him entirely. Even if he’d go long stretches without getting seriously challenged, he stayed ready for battles with the league’s star receivers like Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, Randy Moss and Chad Ochocinco. He was smaller than all of them — but stifled them anyway.

“He would take half the field against the opponent’s best receiver,” Tannenbaum said. “That’s why I think he’s the greatest corner of all time.”

In November, Revis was inducted into the Jets’ Ring of Honor, the prelude to his Hall of Fame induction. He made the trip to New Jersey for the honor, his first foray back to Florham Park in a while. Reed was giddy when he spotted Revis on the sideline during practice, even more when Revis knew who Reed was.

“When he came to practice, I was, like, damn, that’s really Revis,” Reed said.

Then, Revis led a film session with Reed, Gardner and a handful of other Jets defensive backs, including safety Jordan Whitehead, his cousin. He pulled up clips from his time with the Jets, like when he shut down Calvin Johnson, one of the most physically gifted wide receivers in league history. In his first matchup with Johnson, he held him to one catch for 13 yards.

Revis also pulled clips of Gardner, Reed and others from last season too, offering pointers.

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“He didn’t have to do that,” Gardner said. “It was a blessing.”

Revis also preached the importance of practice intensity. For Gardner, that felt like he was preaching to the choir. Last year, Jets receiver Garrett Wilson — the Offensive Rookie of the Year — told The Athletic that he had “never really been guarded in practice before” like Gardner does against him.

“We’re doing reps and I’m, like, damn, he’s guarding this s—, for real,” Wilson said. “From the first time he was out there playing, I knew. It wasn’t easy to go against that boy, and that was the thing for me. I had never seen no one like that.”

Wilson and Gardner’s battles are becoming must-watch moments in practice and will be heavily featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”

“We go at it,” Gardner said. “When he lines up in front of me, it’s time to dominate. … That’s the mentality I have. I want to dominate. I can’t put bad stuff on film.”

Gardner didn’t put much “bad stuff” on film as a rookie. Pro Football Focus graded him as the NFL’s best cornerback, with the best coverage grade and passer rating allowed (53.9) among corners to play at least 500 snaps. He led the NFL in pass breakups (20), had two interceptions and in a stretch of eight games from Weeks 8-16, he was targeted less than three times per game — and zero against the Lions in Week 15. He also was the first rookie cornerback to be a first-team All-Pro selection since Ronnie Lott — also a Hall of Famer — in 1981.

This week, Gardner will hear all about what Revis accomplished — seven Pro Bowls, six All-Pros, a Super Bowl ring (with the New England Patriots) and, now, a first-ballot Hall of Fame induction. When Gardner thinks about his future, he likes to imagine how it’s going to end.

Those accolades are part of it, but he’s aware of the challenges standing between him and that same level of glory.

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“When you think of cornerbacks, you think Darrelle Revis,” Gardner said. “That’s a goal, to get to that type of position where it’s, like, when I hear the Jets and I think of cornerbacks, I think about Revis and Sauce. I know that’s going to take a lot of work. He put in a lot of time and effort to get where he is. I’m only going into Year 2, so I got a long road.

“I begin with the end in mind, but when it’s time, I’m just taking it one step at a time.”

(Top illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; photos of Darrelle Revis, left, and Sauce Gardner: Getty Images)

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