Battle Red Blog
A shocking development struck Houston airwaves today, as Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 reported that the Houston Texans released starting safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson:
According to Wilson, Gardner-Johnson had experienced friction in the Texans’ facility after, “….complaining about his role, wanting to blitz more, per league sources, and even communicating that he wanted to be traded.” Gardner-Johnson was in his first year with the Texans after being traded from the Philadelphia Eagles along with a 2026 sixth-round pick to Houston for former Texans guard Kenyon Green and a 2025 fifth-round pick in March.
Gardner-Johnson was expected to be one of Houston’s several playmaking stars in the defensive backfield after a highlight-filled season with the Super Bowl champion Eagles in 2024. He had only played three regular season games for the Texans before his release, and now he is expected to be replaced by M.J. Stewart in the starting lineup. In his brief career with the Texans, C.J. Gardner-Johnson tallied:
This news arrives just a day after the announcement that the NFL had removed Texans safety Jimmie Ward from the Commissioners’s exempt list after a grand jury in Texas decided not to indict him last week on charges of felony family assault brought forward by the mother of his child. Ward remains on the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, but can be removed by next week.
We will update this post with more information as it becomes available, but as of right now, this is one of the most surprising personnel moves the Houston Texans have made in years.
What do you think of the move? Was C.J. Gardner-Johnson going to take the Texans to the Super Bowl, or are we better off without him? Let us know down in the comments below!
