Before the Texans nearly made it to the AFC Championship for the first time in franchise history, they started the year 0-3. Then, they shook things up by abruptly cutting safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson.<\/p>\n
It was a surprising move, especially since the Texans (who acquired Gardner-Johnson in a trade with the Eagles) made no effort to re-trade him. They simply cut ties with him.<\/p>\n
The Texans never provided a clear explanation of why Gardner-Johnson, who had just won a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, needed to go. In a new interview with Tim Graham of The Athletic, Gardner-Johnson supplies his side of the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the player, things started to go sideways at training camp in West Virginia, after a confrontation with \u201cthe GM\u2019s friend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf y\u2019all going to cut me, cut me,\u201d Gardner-Johnson said. \u201cBut I\u2019ll give nobody reasons to cut me. I haven\u2019t. I don\u2019t. I\u2019m not a cancer. There\u2019s nobody in this locker room that says, \u2018Chauncey\u2019s a problem.\u2019 The media loves me. The only thing that\u2019ll do it is something that triggers somebody that has a say in the building that can alter somebody else\u2019s mind. That happens every time.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how I got [cut] in Houston. One person that\u2019s not technically a part of the organization called me a B-word at Greenbrier. I get out my body; he says something to the GM, and the next thing I\u2019m cut.\u201d<\/p>\n The Texans declined to comment for Graham\u2019s story. Still, the objective timeline doesn\u2019t exactly support the effort to connect the training-camp incident to Gardner-Johnson\u2019s release. <\/p>\n The Texans were at The Greenbrier from August 4 to August 7. The Texans cut him on September 23, a full 47 days after leaving West Virginia.<\/p>\n It had been reported that Gardner-Johnson struggled to learn the Houston defense, and that he \u201cfinger-pointed<\/a>\u201d in lieu of accepting responsibility for his mistakes. Another report indicated that the team had become exhausted by his complaints.<\/p>\n Whatever the reason for his exit from the Texans, Gardner-Johnson has never stayed in one place for very long. Picked by New Orleans in the fourth round of the 2019 draft, the Saints traded him to the Eagles after three seasons. After one year in Philly, he signed with the Lions. After one year with the Lions, he returned to the Eagles. After another year with the Eagles, he was traded to the Texans.<\/p>\n Cut after three games in Houston, Gardner-Johnson landed on the practice squad in Baltimore. One week later, the Ravens released him. <\/p>\n The Bears signed him in late October, and he finished 2025 in Chicago. Then, Gardner-Johnson signed with the Bills.<\/p>\n Seven seasons. Six departures. Gardner-Johnson can say it\u2019s not him \u2014 and maybe it isn\u2019t. Still, he\u2019s made six exits in less than four calendar years (the Saints traded him to the Eagles on August 30, 2022). <\/p>\n On several occasions, Gardner-Johnson aired grievances after his departures. He called his year with the Lions \u201chell<\/a>,\u201d and he claimed he was \u201clied to.\u201d He said the Eagles traded him after the team won Super Bowl LIX because they were \u201cscared of a competitor<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n He complained to Graham about his week in Maryland: \u201cThey sign you in the middle of the night with the plan for you to play that week, then literally 14 hours later they trade for a safety and tell you, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re going to start him and keep you on the practice squad.\u2019 I\u2019m a Super Bowl champion!\u201d<\/p>\n Despite his performance in 11 games with the Bears, Gardner-Johnson told Graham that he knew the Bears wouldn\u2019t re-sign him.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a firecracker, but let\u2019s take the body of work: never legally been in trouble; never physically harmed a person,\u201d Gardner-Johnson said. \u201cBut I haven\u2019t been a captain ever in my life. They say, \u2018You gotta lead the right way.\u2019 My definition of leading is winning. . . . There\u2019s a lot of captains in this league \u2014 and I want this to come out \u2014 that\u2019s just for jersey sales. I can show you three, four captains right now that I wouldn\u2019t get behind. Why would I get behind anybody that doesn\u2019t believe in himself? I\u2019ve played for plenty of false captains, but I gotta fake it, like, \u2018That\u2019s my leader!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He knows that people already think the Bills will cut him. Bills GM Brandon Beane was nevertheless willing to roll the dice on Gardner-Johnson, after both doing the research on the player and making sure he understands the ground rules.<\/p>\n \u201cWe talked about just making sure, \u2018You\u2019ve got to be a good teammate,\u2019\u201d Beane said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want any cheap shots in practice or anything like that. You want to keep it in between those lines, but you do want his edge.\u201d<\/p>\n Implied in that message is that Beane concluded Gardner-Johnson has a reputation for not being a good teammate, and for taking cheap shots in practice.<\/p>\n So far, the Bills seem to like him. Defensive coordinator Jim Leonard calls Gardner-Johnson a player who \u201cloves football,\u201d and who \u201cloves being in the building.\u201d<\/p>\n The challenge isn\u2019t to be in the building. The challenge is to stay in the building. Gardner-Johnson vows that he will.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to win the next two out of three Super Bowls,\u201d he told Graham. \u201cHow? Look where they placed me at. Look who\u2019s my quarterback. If I got a fucking fighting chance, it\u2019s over with.\u201d<\/p>\n Frankly, that\u2019s the kind of fire the underachieving Bills need from their new \u201cfirecracker\u201d safety. And maybe it\u2019ll be enough to have a \u201cC\u201d on Gardner-Johnson\u2019s jersey when he walks onto the field for Buffalo\u2019s Week 1 game at, yes, the Texans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the Texans nearly made it to the AFC Championship for the first time in franchise history, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-727200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727200","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=727200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}