C.J. Gardner-Johnson has only been in the NFL for five seasons, and in that time, he’s already had two different stints with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles clearly like him, and apparently, they were thinking about drafting him in 2019, but everything fell apart because Gardner-Johnson didn’t have his priorities straight while making a pre-draft visit with the team back in 2019.
Five years ago, Gardner-Johnson was viewed as a prospect who was likely going to go off the board by the end of Day 2. However, he said he ended up falling in the draft because he didn’t interview too well with the teams that he talked to.
“I dropped from the first to the fourth after my interviews,” Gardner-Johnson said this week, via the Philly Voice.
One of those pre-draft interviews came with the Eagles, and at the time, it seemed Philadelphia was interested in drafting him, but the Eagles ended up taking him off their draft board for a pretty hilarious reason: They didn’t like that Gardner-Johnson was out hitting on women during his visit.
“The Eagles didn’t draft me because I was trying to holler at a chick at Chickie’s and Pete’s,” Gardner-Johnson said. “That got back to Howie, and then my agent asked me, ‘You were trying to get some girl during your visit?'”
In the end, it all worked out for Gardner-Johnson, but probably not in the exact way he imagined. He ended up getting drafted in the fourth round by the New Orleans Saints, which is almost fitting, because he’s back in New Orleans this week to play in Super Bowl LIX. Gardner-Johnson spent three seasons in the Big Easy before the Saints decided to trade him to Philadelphia prior to the start of the 2022 season.
After one season with the Eagles, Philly tried to re-sign him, but he decided to test free agency, which is how he ended up in Detroit for the 2023 season. After one year with the Lions, Gardner-Johnson returned to Philadelphia in 2024 and the rest is history. This year, he’s been a key part of an Eagles’ secondary that surrendered the fewest passing yards in the NFL this year. It’s a secondary that’s going to have to come up big if Philadelphia is going to pull off an upset against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
