Sauce Gardner now has a lot of dough. 

The Jets and Gardner agreed Tuesday to a four-year, $120.4 million contract extension that makes him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history, The Post confirmed.

The deal includes $60 million guaranteed in new money, per NFL Network. 

It was the second time in as many days that team owner Woody Johnson broke the bank to lock up one of his franchise cornerstones.

It cost more than $250 million in total this week to secure receiver Garrett Wilson and Gardner — who arrived together in 2022 as top 10 draft picks and won their respective Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year awards — through the 2030 season. 

“THE DEAL IS DONE,” Gardner wrote on X, thanking his co-agents, brother Allante Gardner and AJ Vaynerchuk. “This only the beginning. … I appreciate the Jets organization for believing in me, my teammates for the blood, sweat, & tears we put in, and JETS NATION… I appreciate y’all supporting me. Thank you GOD.” 

The average annual value on Gardner’s contract narrowly eclipsed the benchmark set by the Texans’ Derek Stingley Jr., who was drafted one pick ahead of Gardner and recently re-signed for $30 million per year. It clearly was important to Gardner, 24, to be seen as No. 1 — matching his jersey number. 

Gardner and Stingley are lapping the field, as the Panthers’ Jaycee Horn ($25 million per year) is the third highest-paid cornerback. 

The extensions kick in for the 2027 season, after Gardner and Wilson play on the final season of their rookie deals in 2025 and their exercised fifth-year options in 2026.

The players did not put any public pressure on the Jets by holding out of OTAs or grumbling about their contracts. 

The annual salary cap charges are not known because the exact structures of the deals and Gardner’s signing bonus have not been released. 

“If you were going to get Sauce done, you were going to have to make him the highest-paid cornerback,” CBS Sports contracts analyst Joel Corry, a former agent, told The Post. “The upper echelon of the cornerback market and the receiver market, there shouldn’t be as big a disparity as there had been. Wide receiver salaries exploded in 2022 and again in 2024, while cornerback salaries remained pretty stagnant. They started to jump last year.” 

The knock on Gardner compared to his peers is that he does not produce enough takeaways. He has recorded three interceptions and one forced fumble in 48 career games, though that could change with the expected shift to a blitz-heavy, man-to-man coverage scheme. 

But there is no denying Gardner’s standing as a shutdown corner who opposing quarterbacks tend to avoid.

He is a two-time Pro Bowler and two-time First-Team All-Pro who has allowed 454 receiving yards or fewer and two touchdowns or less in each of his first three seasons, according to NextGenStats. 

Only Gardner, Micah Parsons and Lawrence Taylor have been named First-Team All-Pro on defense in each of their first two seasons. By that standard, 2024 was a down year individually, and Gardner has attracted an unusual number of critics for a star player. 

“I want to win. I want to be a part of changing the organization,” Gardner said in May. “If you win in New York, it’s big for your legacy individually, big for the organization.” 

Jets fans are used to painfully drawn-out, high-drama extension negotiations that don’t always end well — whether with John Abraham, Darrelle Revis or Jamal Adams. In fact, Muhammad Wilkerson and Quinnen Williams were the only first-round picks by the Jets from 2010-21 who were retained on second contracts. 

Welcome to a new proactive era. 

First-year general manager Darren Mougey made a signature splash by quietly getting the two extensions done before the start of training camp, embracing former general manager Joe Douglas’ home run draft class instead of foolishly drawing an “our guys” and “their guys” line in the sand, and not making Gardner and Wilson wait to be paid until after their fourth seasons. 

“The longer you wait to sign a Pro Bowl-caliber player, it costs you more in the long run,” Corry said. “It’s better to be proactive than reactive.” 

One league source described Gardner’s extension as a “top priority” for head coach Aaron Glenn — a former cornerback who previously coordinated a Lions defense that always was searching for elite cornerbacks. 

“We’re going into Year 4 together, and we always talk about competing at practice and how we have to make each other better because we are the building blocks for this organization,” Gardner said. “We are the homegrown talent that A.G. talks about.”