C.J. Gardner-Johnson Blasts Texans Over How He Was Released

The Houston Texans went out to acquire C.J. Gardner-Johnson before the start of the 2025 season in hopes of bolstering the back-end of their secondary with a former Super Bowl champion.

However, it didn't take much time before the Texans realized that their fit with Gardner-Johnson wasn't shaping up as expected.

Following the Texans' Week 3 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, in which they lost and dipped to an 0-3 record on the season, the team decided to release Gardner-Johnson. They went in another direction for their safety position, and Gardner-Johnson joined a couple more teams before the end of the year.

Now, Gardner-Johnson finds himself on the Buffalo Bills before the 2026 season. And even a little under a year since his unceremonious end with the Texans, he still has a bad taste in his mouth about how his time went in Houston.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson Still Has Bad Blood After Texans' Release

Gardner-Johnson was asked about his time in Houston during the Bills' training camp earlier this week, where he has some choice words for his former team because of how his time ended.

“I’m glad you asked me about that Texans s--t, you got me pissed now, appreciate you,”Gardner-Johnson said to the media after a Bills practice. “Y’all still ain’t got no confirmed real story from what really happened; let’s talk about that. Where’s the real stories at? What did I really do?"

Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson didn’t hold back when asked about his former team the Houston Texans and how C.J. felt he was treated.

H/T @SalSports on Qs pic.twitter.com/rOUY1z2TEl
— Josh Reed (@4JoshReed) August 6, 2026

"They released me because I wasn’t jelling with the team and I didn’t fit well. Well, why hasn’t the coach spoke up about it? After the loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, they decided I didn’t fit well. It was already starting 0-3, so how can it possibly be on one person?"

It's not the first time that Gardner-Johnson has spoken up about his feelings surrounding Houston and how his time ended there. Earlier this offseason, he even credited part of the reason for getting into a spat with a friend of one of the Houston executives.

The Texans expected things to go better for Gardner-Johnson's time in Houston. They traded a former first-round pick in Kenyon Green to the Philadelphia Eagles in order to acquire him last offseason.

But after the veteran safety had trouble integrating himself into the team's defensive system, reported tension had arisen between him and members of the organization, paired with Houston's poor start to the season, the decision was made to cut ties with him just a few months after the trade was made.

Jul 23, 2025; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson (23) during training camp at Houston Methodist Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

And while it might simply be a coincidence, it didn't take much time for the Texans to turn things around after that Week 3 loss to Jacksonville, and the move to rid themselves of Gardner-Johnson.

Houston went on to win 12 of their next 15 games on the schedule to rally towards a playoff appearance, and eventually, a Wild Card win against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In the time that Gardner-Johnson has been away, he certainly hasn't forgotten about his era in Houston. And as his new Bills team is facing that same Texans squad in Week 1 of the new season, he'll be carrying a little extra motivation into the matchup.

"[In Week 1] Josh [Allen] will handle it up and the defense will handle it up," Gardner-Johnson said about Buffalo's Week 1 matchup vs. the Texans. "That’s a good team. I’m not putting anything past them. Just the situation of how they handled me. It just wasn’t respectful. As a grown man, I feel like, when you see me, you see me.”

So if the Texans weren't already facing high stakes of trying to start the year off with a win against a tough Bills team, adding the implications of Gardner-Johnson's situation on top of it makes that game even more important for Houston to take advantage of.

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