{"id":258951,"date":"2025-10-29T15:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258951\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T15:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:41:07","slug":"bears-add-c-j-gardner-johnson-to-banged-up-secondary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258951\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears add C.J. Gardner-Johnson to banged-up secondary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oct 29, 2025, 11:01 AM ET<\/p>\n<p>The <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"19d73366-b5a5-cca2-a176-a2c024ce0bb3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/chi\/chicago-bears\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Bears<\/a> have signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4034953\/cj-gardner-johnson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">C.J. Gardner-Johnson<\/a>, adding the veteran safety to their injury-depleted secondary.<\/p>\n<p>Gardner-Johnson&#8217;s agents told ESPN&#8217;s Adam Schefter that the well-traveled defensive back signed with the Bears on Wednesday after visiting with the team the previous day.<\/p>\n<p>The Bears (4-3) are in playoff contention despite playing without multiple starters in their defensive backfield.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/46738455\/nfl-chicago-bears-caleb-williams-ravens\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/r1566490_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bears Pro Bowl cornerback <a data-player-guid=\"5a41d261-8616-165f-c459-137b6b1681f1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4243253\/jaylon-johnson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jaylon Johnson<\/a> is sidelined indefinitely after undergoing core muscle surgery last month, and starting cornerback <a data-player-guid=\"a2a25046-4d98-447c-c664-48f6c4335608\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4361093\/kyler-gordon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kyler Gordon<\/a> will miss at least three more games after being placed on injured reserve last week. Chicago also was without cornerback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/4426374\/tyrique-stevenson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyrique Stevenson<\/a> for this past Sunday&#8217;s loss to the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"38248455-3da4-84e4-8090-98b5cc38ffdc\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/bal\/baltimore-ravens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ravens<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Bears now will turn to Gardner-Johnson, who will join his fourth team since the end of last season. The signing will reunite Gardner-Johnson with Chicago defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, who coached the safety during his time with the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"97d2f6c9-2f22-459c-306a-046941ccab2a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/no\/new-orleans-saints\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Gardner-Johnson, 27, had six interceptions last season for the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"d1a9b001-1df7-fbd7-ae4c-6ca7065286ec\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/phi\/philadelphia-eagles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eagles<\/a> in their march to the Super Bowl title before signing with the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"595690b3-2161-4913-a7a7-814af2fd2621\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/hou\/houston-texans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texans<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>After being cut by Houston, Gardner-Johnson joined the Ravens, but he was released by Baltimore two weeks ago in what was described as &#8220;an amicable mutual decision.&#8221; He has 18 interceptions and 51 passes defensed in his seven NFL seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oct 29, 2025, 11:01 AM ET The Chicago Bears have signed C.J. Gardner-Johnson, adding the veteran safety to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-258951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}