Chicago Bears safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson has had a wild journey through the NFL. In just the last year, he's been on four different teams. After helping the Philadelphia Eagles win a Super Bowl in February, he's been traded once and released twice. The Houston Texans were ready to move on from him three games after trading for him. The Baltimore Ravens, his most recent stop, released the veteran just a week after signing him to their practice squad.
The safety seems to have finally found a suitable home in Chicago. Two games into his time with the team, he has become one of the most impactful players on the Bears' defense.
The Bears are figuring out what the Ravens and Texans never could: Gardner-Johnson can be a quality player if he's deployed in the right ways.
Bears are getting more out of C.J. Gardner-Johnson than Ravens or Texans ever could
Bears fans can criticize Dennis Allen all they want. In fact, they have good reason to. He's coaching one of the worst defenses in the NFL this season despite having plenty of quality players at his disposal. But to his credit, he's found the best way to use Gardner-Johnson on a down-to-down basis.
In the three games they had him on the field, the Texans used the veteran primarily as a deep safety. Jalen Pitre hovered closer to the line of scrimmage, while Gardner-Johnson was tasked with covering deep routes. He struggled in that role, allowing completions on over 75% of passes thrown in his direction.
While the Ravens never gave the veteran a chance to play (they traded for former Chargers safety Alohi Gilman soon after signing him), he didn't quite fit their system either. Kyle Hamilton held the slot role, meaning that Gardner-Johnson would likely have been relegated to the deep safety position once again.
Allen is trying something different. He's used the safety as a disruptor, playing him close to the line of scrimmage more often than not. In his two games with the Bears, Gardner-Johnson has played most of his snaps as a slot defender. He's blitzed on almost 10% of his defensive snaps, more than double the rate he had with the Texans.
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The results have been undeniable. The safety already has three sacks and a forced fumble in a Bears uniform. He's still not the coverage ace that his previous teams expected him to be, but he's impacting the game in a positive way. Moving forward, Gardner-Johnson could be a major part of the solution to the issues Chicago is facing on defense.