Indianapolis Colts coach Shane Steichen said Friday that he expects cornerback Sauce Gardner, who is working his way back from a calf strain, to make his return for Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Gardner returned to the practice field Friday for the first time since injuring his calf on Nov. 30. He has missed the last three games as the Colts have dropped five straight and fallen further from postseason contention.
While Gardner is expected to return, Steichen also announced that defensive lineman DeForest Buckner will have season-ending surgery on the herniated disc in his neck. Buckner will be placed on injured reserve. Buckner, after being on injured reserve since Week 9, returned for the Colts’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers on “Monday Night Football” but re-aggravated his neck in that game, prompting the team to shut him down for the rest of the season.
Getting Gardner back, at the very least, is good news for Indianapolis as it looks to stay in the NFL playoff picture. Gardner appeared in three games for the Colts after they acquired him in a deadline trade with the New York Jets.
Indianapolis sent two first round picks and receiver Adonai Mitchell to New York in exchange for Gardner, the No. 4 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Gardner has 13 total tackles and one pass deflection with the Colts this season.
NFL Week 17 playoff picture: Packers earn berth after Vikings eliminate Lions; Broncos chasing AFC’s top seed
Tyler Sullivan
Gardner, 25, has earned two first-team All-Pro and two Pro Bowl honors in his four-year career. He signed a four-year contract extension worth $120.4 million in July that made him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history.
In three games since Gardner’s injury, the Colts are allowing an average of 268.7 yards passing and 34 points per contest. They’re also in the midst of a five-game losing streak that has seen them drop almost entirely out of the postseason picture after entering the third week of November with an 8-2 record.
Indianapolis’ best path to the postseason is to win out while the Houston Texans lose all of their remaining games. Even then, the final wild card spot would come down to the NFL’s strength of victory tiebreaker between the Colts and the Texans.
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