The Chicago Bears are giving C.J. Gardner-Johnson an opportunity. The rest is up to him.
Gardner-Johnson joined the Bears ahead of their Week 9 road game against the Cincinnati Bengals, making Chicago his fourth organization since the end of the 2024 season.
Gardner-Johnson helped the Philadelphia Eagles win a Super Bowl last year, was traded to the Houston Texans this past offseason, got cut, signed with the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad, where the Bears poached him for their active roster and banged-up secondary.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson Gets Blunt Truth After Signing With Bears
Bears DB Coach Al Harris: C.J. Gardner Johnson Ready to ‘Mature as a Man’
Bears defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator Al Harris was a fiery player in his day, and he already had a similar player in Tyrique Stevenson, whose injury is part of the reason Gardner-Johnson is in Chicago, and has helped him find that fine line and walk it properly.
To Harris, there is but so much the coaching staff, teammates, or any other outside force can do for Gardner-Johnson, who downplayed his reputation and an altercation with the Bears in 2020.
The rest is up to the player.
“At some point, you gotta mature as a man,” Harris told Clocker Sports on Thursday. “I think he’s at that point to where he matures as a man and realizes, ‘Hey, look. Can’t hurt the team. There’s nothing bigger than the team.’ So, you lay that down, and he has to take it from there.”
Harris made it clear that it is not within his purview to “handle” anyone. His role is to “teach and demand.”
For Gardner-Johnson, it could again be shape up or get shipped out.
“We’re all grown men in here. So, he has to understand that what he does affects my family. What I do affects his family. So, there’s no other way to put it than that. If you don’t understand that part of it, then it is what it is.”
Gardner-Johnson lasted three seasons in New Orleans before the Saints traded him to the Eagles in 2022.
Down Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon, both of whom are on injured reserve with groin injuries, the Bears need Gardner-Johnson to be closer to the one many of them remember from previous encounters.
Ben Johnson, Dennis Allen Get Honest About C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was Gardner-Johnson’s DC for the first three years of his career with the New Orleans Saints. Gardner-Johnson was a fourth-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Saints.
There, Gardner-Johnson and Allen worked alongside current Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. Gardner-Johnson was in Detroit with Bears head coach Ben Johnson, too.
Johnson and Allen value that passion from Gardner-Johnson, who is happy they reunited.
“I think he’s a highly competitive player, and I think he goes out there and competes on every single play. And so, that’s fully what I would expect for him to do with us. So, I think he brings a little attitude to the football team, which I think is good,” Allen told reporters before practice on October 30. “We all mature with age. I think all of us, we make some mistakes as we’re younger and kind of learn from them, and we kind of move on. I’ve seen a player that’s matured a little bit. And yet, he still has that fiery attitude, which I think that’s what makes him who he is.”
Johnson had limited exposure to Gardner-Johnson due to an injury that sent the DB to injured reserve. However, he also cited Gardner-Johnson’s passion as a positive.
He also believes the Bears have the locker room to handle Gardner-Johnson’s personality.
“He’s a good football player. There’s a number of us that have been with him in the past. And so, it’s a good fit,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “All I know is he’s a competitive player. I felt that during training camp that year that I was with him, early in the season. And then, when he came back late in the season, it’s the same thing. He loves being on the grass and playing football. And so, we’ll make sure that we have a good support system for him. He’s got a family, he’s got kids that are important to him. And so, we just want to make sure that we support him the best we can off the field.”
Working in Gardner-Johnson’s favor, some of his new teammates are also old ones.
Former Teammates React to C.J. Gardner-Johnson Signing
C.J. Gardner-Johnson #35 of the Chicago Bears practices in Week 9. Mandatory credit: Clocker Sports.
Bears right guard Jonah Jackson was with Gardner-Johnson in Detroit and remembers the outspoken DB favorably.
“That was the year we made a pretty good run in Detroit, and I think he had tore his pec pretty early. But when he was on the field, he was amazing,” Jackson told Clocker Sports on Thursday. “I get along with C.J. I seen him last year when I was in LA, and we played the Birds [Philadelphia Eagles]. Felt somebody jump on my back and went, ‘Who the hell is this?’ It was him. So yeah, I got a good rep with C.J.”
Bears long snapper Scott Daly was also on that team.
“Just high energy dude, a guy that’s, I think, bringing a lot of juice to this defense, and someone that plays with a great amount of emotion, intensity, and just physicality, I think,” Daly told Clocker Sports on Thursday.
“We’re super fired to see him. Saw him in the weight room and got to catch up with him briefly. So, that was awesome. This league is small and smaller the more you play in and the longer you play in it. And to be able to have guys come back and be able to cross paths with again is pretty cool.”
Daly also noted Gardner-Johnson’s familiarity with Allen’s defense as “probably a big part” of the Bears’ reasoning and vice versa, as well as the ties to Johnson.
But Daly was certain about the kind of player Gardner-Johnson was just two years ago.
“All I know is that he’s a really good, really solid player, physical player,” Daly told Clocker Sports about “Ceedy,” adding that he is “someone that’s going to, I think, make an immediate impact when he starts playing.”
C.J. Gardner-Johnson Not Looking to Disprove Narrative
Since the end of the 2021 campaign, Gardner-Johnson has been with (in order) the Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions, Eagles again, Houston Texans, Ravens, who the Bears played in Week 8, and now Chicago. He had unceremonious exits from Detroit, Houston, and Philadelphia.
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said he decided in the team’s best interest to move on amid reports of blown assignments and Gardner-Johnson being a source of internal friction. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud said he liked Gardner-Johnson.
For his past, Gardner-Johnson is not concerned with negative perceptions of him.
“I don’t got to say nothing,” Gardner-Johnson told Clocker Sports on Wednesday as he met the media. “Long as I stay in the building, do what I need to do, I don’t got to answer none of those questions. I think being in the building with a good team is going to answer itself.”
Notably, Gardner-Johnson received support from former Ravens teammates, DB Marquise Robinson and Zay Flowers, despite his brief stint with the team.
Harris said he liked that Gardner-Johnson has “played a lot of ball” and has “been productive” on the field. Gardner-Johnson led the league with 6 interceptions in 2022, repeated the count in 2024, and is tied for the second-most INTs in the league since 2021, per Stathead.
