Ahmad 'Sauce' Gardner Proves He Belongs Among Elite NFL Prospects

The junior played another stellar game against the toughest competition of his football career.

CINCINNATI — Analysts touted Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner's talents all season, but some detractors wondered how he would fare against Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams.

Things went just fine against the best deep threat in the nation. Gardner played lights out in Texas, allowing one catch for minus-two yards on two targets when shading Williams. The other target was a deep pass down the right sideline that Gardner was all over.

Gardner finished the game with five tackles (one for loss) and closed his college career having never allowed a touchdown in coverage. He proved he not only belongs on the field with NFL talent, but can dominate when he gets there. Gardner did everything he could to boost his draft stock outside of picking off that one deep target or notching a sack.

Check out what the rest of the country had to say about Gardner's performance.

Sauce Gardner lays the BOOM on Jameson Williams 💥 https://t.co/NLp1uQkaIN

— PFF (@PFF) December 31, 2021

Sauce Gardner finishes his career with 1100+ snaps with 9 interceptions and 0 touchdowns allowed. Williams targeted twice all game on him. He had 1 catch for -2 yards. Amazing they didn’t end up moving him around. Kid will be a top 3 corner in NFL in 3-4 years

— Stuckey (@Stuckey2) January 1, 2022

Cincinnati got beat up in this game inside.

But the hyped matchup of Cincinnati’s cornerbacks vs. Alabama’s receivers? Sauce Gardner and Coby Bryant won that one, honestly. Impressive stuff.

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) December 31, 2021

Sauce is doing a tremendous job as the boundary CB. His length is causing problems for the Alabama WRs at the line. Doing a really good job of using the out of bounds line as an extra defender.

— Jordan Reid (@Jordan_Reid) December 31, 2021

I think Sauce Gardner might be the best player in the draft but that could be my group of 5 biased talking

— McKenzie Milton (@McKenzieMil10) December 31, 2021

Ahmad 'Sauce' Gardner, aka CB1 pic.twitter.com/iXa1sNfJQu

— Cam Mellor (@CamMellor) December 31, 2021

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