A largely innocuous comment by Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio before an OTA practice earlier this week highlighted why playmaking safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson is preparing to play for the Houston Texans next season.
“That was a salary cap-type thing, and [GM] Howie [Roseman] made that decision,” Fangio said when asked about the trade that sent the star safety and a 2026 sixth-round pick to South Texas for an offensive line reclamation project in Kenyon Green, along with a 2025 fifth-round pick. “I was fine with it.”
Industrious Houston-area reporter Aaron Wilson caught up with Gardner-Johnson before a recent private workout and got the other side of the story, which highlighted both sides of the Gardner-Johnson experience.
“I feel highly disrespected, but it’s a business,” Gardner-Johnson told Wilson of Houston’s KPRC 2. “Never was an All-Pro or Pro Bowl [selection]. Never. Led the league in interceptions. What more do you want?”
That chip on Gardner-Johnson’s shoulder has been a part of his game since being drafted in the fourth round out of Florida in 2019. It peaked when the Saints decided they didn’t want to extend him and dealt him to the Eagles right before the 2022 season, a campaign in which he tied for the league lead in interceptions with six despite missing five games with a lacerated kidney.
Gardner-Johnson’s energy, toughness, and ball skills were a key component for the No. 2 defense in the NFL, which helped win an NFC championship before derailing late against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.
After that success, Gardner-Johnson felt disrespected by the Eagles’ contract offer, prompting Roseman to go in a different direction in free agency with CJGJ ultimately taking less on a one-year deal from Detroit.
Things fell apart for both sides with the Eagles’ defense cratering during a second-half collapse that turned 10-1 into a one-and-done in the postseason while Gardner-Johnson tore a pec that essentially wiped out his one-year sojourn with the Lions.
That prompted a reunion, and sure enough, the Eagles went from the bottom of the league in pass defense to No. 1 with Gardner-Johnson again serving as the biggest playmaker with six interceptions. More so, this time the Eagles finished the job by stifling the Chiefs' offense, winning Super Bowl LIX.
Gardner-Johnson was also under contract with a manageable number for 2025, but the Eagles still dealt him despite the Super Bowl window remaining open.
In-house the spin after moving Gardner-Johnson was cash over cap in that Philadelphia has been the top cash-spending team in the NFL over the past decade, and things were getting tight just as big-money extensions were going to be on the table for a host of younger players.
That process has already started with Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens, who signed a four-year, $68 million extension earlier this offseason. Safety Reed Blankenship is also likely to be signed to an extension in the coming weeks.
After this season, superstar defensive tackle Jalen Carter and emerging edge rusher Nolan Smith will likely have to be addressed, while the completion of the 2026 campaign puts star cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean into play.
Objectively, Philadelphia has so many good players that its explanation for moving Gardner-Johnson makes some sense. But it’s also incomplete.
Gardner-Johnson is due up to $8.5 million this year with $2 million of his $7.75 million deal guaranteed, a number more than manageable had the Eagles wanted to move forward.
“It wasn’t about money,” Gardner-Johnson told Wilson. “If it was about money, everybody would have been gone. How can I say this the most respectful way? Saquon [Barkley] deserved it. Zack [Baun] deserved it, but the reasons behind it, the fans don’t deserve that reason.
“It’s deeper than that. The fans don’t deserve, ‘It’s about the money,’ because if that was the case, my contract was safe.”
It’s a little more layered because the Eagles have essentially created a demarcation line in which players above the line, like All-Pros Barkley and Baun, and a young ascending player like Jurgens, will get paid, while other good players slightly below it will not.
At $14 million or so star tight end Dallas Goedert was also judged to be below it until agreeing to take a $4M haircut.
In the case of Gardner-Johnson, his high-maintenance personality undoubtedly played into the decision to trade him, something even CJGJ essentially confirmed with his comments to Wilson.
“People say, ‘He’s a hazard, he’s this, he’s that.’ I never been no hazard, bro,” Gardner-Johnson said. “They got no real issues on me. That blackball ain’t going to work on me, because I got me a ring. I got me one. I got three more championships in me. I’m probably going to win the next three. I’m going to get me another Super Bowl this year.
"Just watch.”
To Gardner-Johnson’s point, he’s not robbing banks or getting into legal trouble. Unfortunately, he decided to describe himself as "high-risk."
‘Don’t put me in no category. I’m in my own category. High-risk, high reward, baby," said Gardner-Johnson.
The Eagle captured the reward with the high risk and decided to try to get it again without it.
