Former Houston Texans safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson said he was not trying to provide any bulletin board material. However, teams and players do not need much, and the now-Buffalo Bills safety said enough, including about C.J. Stroud, his former Texans teammate.
“Next question,” Gardner-Johnson told reporters on September 9 when asked directly what he has seen from Stroud on film.
That, again, followed several responses to the effect that his focus is on the Bills.
“Buffalo,” Gardner-Johnson said when asked what his focus was ahead of the Week 1, regular-season-opening matchup against the Texans, who traded for him during the 2025 offseason only to cut him three weeks into the campaign.
“Just focus on being a bill. When you focus on the other s***, you give them bulletin-board material, I guess. I’m not really worried about them. They’re not worried about me. They got their team, we got our team. We focused on winning the game. My focus is on being a great Buffalo Bill for Sunday, and not really tuning into the extracurricular.”
C.J. Gardner-Johnson didn’t hold back about his exit from the Texans, calling some reports “lies.”
@Djbienaime and @jonmalexander detail what really happened behind the scenes:“The bottom line is, he wasn’t the right fit for this team.”
Notably, Stroud said that he never had any issue with Gardner-Johnson during their time together as Texans teammates.
Bills’ C.J. Gardner-Johnson Gets Honest Ahead of Texans Game
Gardner-Johnson has spoken at length multiple times about what went wrong during his time with the Texans, citing a verbal altercation with a friend of general manager Nick Caserio amid reports that he was disruptive in the locker room and missing assignments on the field.
This offseason, Gardner-Johnson did not see the field during the 2026 preseason. However, he asserted that he will be his usual self on Sunday when the Bills visit the Texans.
“Everybody’s waiting for what CeeDee do, because there ain’t any preseason,” Gardner-Johnson said. “But it’s like, why are you surprised at what I do? If I go out, it’s gonna be the same s*** you’ve seen in previous spots. So, it’s like my motto this year is to focus on being a great person, a player in that Bills jersey. All the other stuff don’t matter right now.”
Gardner-Johnson was a 2024 Super Bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles.
He found a home with the Chicago Bears after a brief stint with the Baltimore Ravens in 2025. That was after the Texans parted ways with him. This will be Gardner-Johnson’s first time back in Houston (at least as a player) since he was a member of the Texans.
Texans Could Take Leap to ‘Generational’ With CJGJ Replacement
The Texans notably have attempted to fill the void they thought they addressed with Gardner-Johnson with another Eagles Super Bowl champion, Reed Blankenship, whom they signed in free agency.
The Athletic’s Daniel Popper listed Blankenship among the 10 players he expects to have the “biggest impact” on their new teams.
“Blankenship entered free agency coming off a down year with the Eagles. The Texans signed him to a deal worth $8.25 million in average annual value. At least part of Blankenship’s performance in 2025 was related to a rotating cast at the second safety spot,” Popper wrote on September 9, noting the Texans have Pro Bowl alternate Calen Bullock at free safety.
“The Texans also have one of the best cornerback groups in the league with outside corners Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter and nickel Jalen Pitre. The Texans already had one of the best defenses in the league last season. Blankenship fills a spot that was not entirely solidified in 2025. He could be the piece that pushes the Texans from elite to generational on that side of the ball.”
Sunday, Gardner-Johnson and the Bills will look to exact some measure of revenge against Stroud and the Texans. But the natural comparisons to how the Texans’ defense looks in Week 1 this season compared to last is also worth monitoring.
Bills’ C.J. Gardner-Johnson Drops 2-Word Answer About Texans’ C.J. Stroud