C. J. Gardner-Johnson

This could be, honestly, an AFC championship type of preview.

But also, I think it's fascinating from the point of C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Dan.

The Bills' safety, played for the Houston Texans, was cut after three games.

Yeah,

Fired up for what he was fired up for.

Either

way, C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

You talk about Joe Brady having this game circled.

I'll say this, so quick context.

Last year, the Texans lost their first three games, and in that stretch, released C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

If you look at those games...

Uh-oh.

Seeing it go off in the first half, what could be optimistic for the rest of the season moving forward?

Okay, yeah, I was in the middle of it.

And I say this about C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

I do have a question for you real quick to contextualize my story.

If early on things are really not going on, how is the coaching staff going to a- react? How are they gonna adjust?

How's CJ, GJ gonna react?

How, how's that gonna, like, how-

Retire halfway

Um, i- in a road environment, uh, we heard, uh, today that both Brady, um, and, uh, Jim Leonard will be on the sidelines, so you know, that's gonna be a little bit different.

And so the communication from the box is gonna be a little bit less critical in that the coaches will be on the sideline to get in the player's face and have that vibe in person.

But also, how are these new pieces on both the offense and defense going to communicate with their peers and their teammates, um, throughout the game in a loud environment? So you mentioned CJ, GJ, uh, with, uh, Cole Bishop, how, how are they gonna be able to communicate with the secondary? Dee Alford's also a new piece in that.

Um, you know, how are these guys, even the linebacking crew, how are those guys all going to get into the right looks? And there's new looks with the first time in live bullets.

which is ironic because now he's on the Texans.

So we'll have to see, you know, God forbid CJ Gardner Johnson gets an interception on Sunday.

Oh my gosh.

I'm not ready.

If you're the Texans offense, where are you attacking this defense? Where's the weak link that you feel that the Bills have in this new 3-4 defense? You're CJ, you're Nick Cayley.

Is there someone you're looking at to say, go after that person? How are you going to attack this new 3-4 defense with Ed Oliver, Bradley Chubb coming around the corner, Greg Rousseau? You've got Bernard in the middle, CJ Gardner-Johnson on the back end.

You know that he's going to be ready for this game.

How are you attacking this defense?

And I think 1.0, 2.0, that vision included Will, Daniil, and those extensions and Aziz bringing them over from Tennessee after his first year.

And, you know, Kamari Lassiter and Kalen Bullock and even attempted things with CJ Gardner-Johnson, but reforming and reshaping Jalen Petrie.

That was the vision.

For the defense, now the vision as a head coach, Keenan Ruggs, David Montgomery, making sure my quarterback has the tools that he needs, that tight end room being revamped, right? Not waiting until things continue to get worse before addressing it offensively.

Some of those guys can go down and play inside on third down.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson, I should have mentioned him earlier probably, but C.J. Gardner-Johnson, This time last year was your starting safety for the Houston Texans.

And over the course of the first three games, there were some missed assignments in the secondary that somebody in the Texans was kind enough to leak with great specificity to DJ Piano May about exactly when and where DJ C.J. Garner Johnson screwed up.

And then there were reports that he wasn't taking responsibility, etc., etc., It seems like so far everything in Buffalo is totally copacetic with C.J. Garner Johnson.

And in the offseason, there was an article where he threw some shade at the Texans.

the big question for him as he knows is always all right can i not can i not be overly aggressive and jump routes that i'm not supposed to be jumping i just gotta play i gotta play it cool i gotta be a safety net and yet sean and i were talking about it this morning on 95.7 the fan at some point does nick cayley successfully bait cj gardner johnson and is the guy to bait him dalton schultz Dalton gets chippy, and he'll get chippy with guys in practice.

So Sean and I were trying to figure out, okay, who's most likely to have gotten into it with C.J. Gardner-Johnson in practice? And we realized, oh, it was Dalton Schultz.

So if there's a guy that might be able to pull the old Travis Kelsey and bait C.J. Gardner-Johnson, maybe it's Dalton Schultz.

I mean, I feel like given the history here that they're going to look to bait him a little bit or, you know what I'm saying? I feel like that familiarity could be an advantage for Houston.

I'm guessing you guys are going through the same thing I did last year with C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

I know he's got a checkered past, but you watch him, you listen to him.

He seems to be aware of the fact that he's at least partly responsible for his checkered past.

That is not necessarily even somebody getting beat physically as much as somebody is out of position.

You know, I'm glad you brought up.

I guess C.J. Gardner-Johnson fitting into that scheme and system, I think he can fit into a lot of schemes or systems.

I think with him personality-wise, if you look at Vic Fangio, Vic Fangio is a very low-key guy, different personality than D'Amico Ryans.