What started off as a matter of disagreement between DB CJ Gardner-Johnson and the Texans has now turned into a battle. Back in 2025, when the team released him after week 3, reports came out of Gardner-Johnson’s struggle with DeMeco Ryan’s defense and verbal spat with teammates. But it turns out that’s not the entire story, as Gardener-Johnson now shuts down all false claims.

“If y’all are going to cut me, cut me,” Gardner-Johnson said. “But I’ll give nobody reasons to cut me. I haven’t. I don’t. I’m not a cancer. There’s nobody in this locker room that says, ‘Chauncey’s a problem.’ The media loves me. The only thing that’ll do it is something that triggers somebody who has a say in the building and can alter somebody else’s mind. That happens every time.”

It all started when the Texans traded for him from the Philadelphia Eagles, but he played only three games before the team decided to let him go. Houston lost all three of those games. In two of them, Gardner-Johnson had to play in a different position than usual, and the Rams and Jaguars scored late touchdowns. After the Texans released him, he first joined the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad. Later, he earned a starting job with the Chicago Bears and continued his NFL career.

In an interview with The Athletic, Gardner-Johnson said he believes his release from the Texans was not mainly because of his football performance. He explained that the problems started during training camp at The Greenbrier in West Virginia after he argued with a person he described as “the GM’s friend.” According to Gardner-Johnson, that incident changed how the team viewed him.

On top of it, Gardner-Johnson denied that he was a problem for the team. He said he was never a bad teammate or someone who caused trouble in the locker room.

At the same time, reports suggested there were also issues between Gardner-Johnson and Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans. ESPN reported that he was unhappy with how the Texans used him on defense. He believed he was being played out of position and preferred to rely on his own football knowledge instead of changing roles.

Well, what’s interesting is that Gardner-Johnson claims it doesn’t really match the timeline. He said the argument happened during training camp in West Virginia, but the Texans did not release him until late September, several weeks later. During training camp, Gardner-Johnson also suffered a serious knee injury.

At first, doctors thought the injury might end his season, but later tests showed he could return within a few weeks. Because of these developments, some people wonder why the Texans kept him on the team for several more weeks if they had already decided to release him after the training camp incident.

But clearly, Gardner-Johnson is not the player’s favorite.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson gets “trash-talker” tag

C.J. Gardner-Johnson has built a reputation as one of the NFL’s biggest trash talkers. Because of his on-field attitude, other NFL players voted him as both the league’s “Most Annoying Player” and “Biggest Trash Talker” in anonymous polls.

According to The Athletic: “Last season, we asked players to name the biggest trash-talker. This year, we broadened the question to the most annoying, leaving it to the players’ discretion to decide what qualified as annoying. Well, last year’s biggest trash-talker, Philadelphia Eagles defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson, took the crown again.”

Talking to opponents during games is common in football, but reports suggested Gardner-Johnson also had problems with his own team. According to reports, the Texans believed he was not a good fit in the locker room because he often complained about his role on the team. Now, that’s the Texans’ story, and as per C.J., he was always a team player.

So, right now it is very hard to say who’s right or wrong, but C.J. did make his side of the story clear.