{"id":115093,"date":"2025-06-09T02:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T02:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/115093\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T02:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T02:46:09","slug":"texans-c-j-gardner-johnson-feels-highly-disrespected-by-eagles-trading-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/115093\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans\u2019 C.J. Gardner-Johnson feels \u2018highly disrespected\u2019 by Eagles trading him"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following offseason, Gardner-Johnson joined the Detroit Lions on a one-year deal<\/a>. He suffered a non-contact knee injury<\/a> at a training camp practice and was carted off the field. He overcame it and was available to play at the start of the season, but then suffered a torn pectoral injury<\/a> in Week 2. Gardner-Johnson was forced to miss 14 regular season games, and Detroit fell short in the NFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n

Gardner-Johnson returned to Philly on a three-year contract<\/a> in the 2024 offseason. He started in every game — playoffs included — for Philly en route to the team’s second Super Bowl title.<\/p>\n

Now, he’ll begin a new chapter of his NFL journey in Houston. The Texans possess a talented defensive unit under head coach DeMeco Ryans highlighted by All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.<\/a>, safety Jalen Pitre<\/a> and pass rushers Will Anderson Jr.<\/a> and Danielle Hunter<\/a>. In Ryans’ two seasons with the Texans, the club has won two consecutive AFC South titles and has an emerging star quarterback in C.J. Stroud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gardner-Johnson has taken notice of Houston’s ascension in the AFC.<\/p>\n

“I mean, you guys played a lot of good ball here, but I don’t think they understand what it means to win when it matters,” he said. “I’m not talking discredit to the team. I’m just saying I’ve been in a lot situations where, from Detroit to New Orleans to Philly, I’ve got to win when it matters and I’ve been in games where I had to step up.<\/p>\n

“For me, championships means more to me than just winning a football game right now because I’m getting older. I’m playing with a lot of younger guys who understand like, yeah, the money’s here, but it’s more on when you can win and get a championship, you know?”<\/p>\n

Gardner-Johnson will get an opportunity to prove that the Eagles made the wrong decision.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia also lost several key players in free agency this offseason. Mekhi Becton<\/a>, Josh Sweat<\/a> and Milton Williams<\/a> signed bigger deals elsewhere, while the Eagles prioritized giving contract extensions to running back Saquon Barkley<\/a>, linebacker Zack Baun<\/a> and offensive tackle Lane Johnson<\/a>. Gardner-Johnson, an odd man out in Philly via trade rather than free agency, talked about the money element.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t about money,” Gardner-Johnson said. “If it was about money, everybody would have been gone. How can I say this the most respectful way? Saquon deserved it. Zack deserved it, but the reasons behind it, the fans don’t deserve that reason.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

At the NFL’s Annual League Meeting in April, Roseman explained<\/a> why Philly shipped CJGJ to Houston. The Eagles GM said that there had to be a balance between keeping and signing players in free agency and building throughout the draft. Gardner-Johnson did not fall in Philly’s long-term plans.<\/p>\n

Gardner-Johnson’s tenure once again didn’t last beyond a season in his second stint with the Eagles, but now he’ll get a chance to pursue a Super Bowl with the Texans, who have yet to lift a Lombardi Trophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following offseason, Gardner-Johnson joined the Detroit Lions on a one-year deal. He suffered a non-contact knee injury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2056],"tags":[1227,1172,7,221,253,2368,88,6,609,4267,109,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-115093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-c-j-gardner-johnson","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-texans","13":"tag-houstontexans","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-no-minute","17":"tag-offseason-news","18":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","19":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114651121850621524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}