This jersey change is not meant to stir the Sauce
Azareye’h Thomas at Jets Training on August 1, 2026 Credit: Ed Murray
Azareye’h Thomas switched his jersey number to 1 this season. Sauce Gardner’s old number.
But the second-year cornerback who is in contention to fill the starting spot in the secondary that Gardner held with the Jets at this time last year said it has nothing to do with the current Colt.
“I have a bigger meaning to it,” he said. “I play for an audience of one, and that’s my lord and savior Jesus Christ.”
Thomas’ promising play as a rookie last year was one of the reasons the Jets felt comfortable trading Gardner to the Colts in early November. They hoped he would be a starter the rest of the season and they could get an extended look at him in game action. That audition lasted just a few weeks. After four starts for the post-Sauce Jets during which he played 210 of his 311 defensive snaps as a rookie, Thomas suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 15.
Thomas said he understands not everyone will make the connection he intended with the jersey swap and most will see him as grabbing Gardner’s former number the first opportunity he had. It's the first takeaway of his career.
“I put a lot of thought into it,” he said. “I don’t really move off impulse. Nowadays everybody sees a single-digit and they jump on it but it’s something that I really spoke about with my family, my loved ones, my brothers… I know the pressure that comes with that number but my momma raised me and I’m used to it.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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