NEW ORLEANS — C.J. Gardner-Johnson didn’t try to hide it. He probably couldn’t have even if he wanted to.
Sunday’s win meant a lot to him.
Gardner-Johnson played through a foot injury he suffered during the week and started for an Eagles defense that held his former team to just 12 points in a gutty 15-12 win.
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“Listen, we keep receipts,” Gardner-Johnson said. “That’s what I told y’all in the locker room. ‘See ya’ll Sunday.’ Like I told y’all the day before, they got rid of me, I didn’t get rid of them. It’s still in me. It’s still tatted on me. I ain’t worried.”
As Gardner-Johnson mentioned his tattoo, he pulled up his No. 8 jersey to show off the Saints logo on his torso. The Saints drafted Gardner-Johnson in the fourth round back in 2019 and then unceremoniously traded him to the Eagles just before his contract season in 2022.
He never forgot about that.
In 2022 with the Eagles, Gardner-Johnson missed a possible revenge game against the Saints because of a lacerated kidney. And then he missed his next chance in 2023 with the Lions because of a pectoral tear.
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So despite injuring his foot during Thursday morning’s walkthrough and missing the last two days of practice this week, there was no chance Gardner-Johnson was going to miss this game. Not if he could help it.
“Man, I’m beat up. But that don’t stop nothing, bro,” Gardner-Johnson said after the win. “That don’t stop nothing. It don’t stop the Dawg Mentality that coach is talking about. It don’t stop working on the basic fundamentals. There’s things we got to clean up but as a whole we did exactly what we was supposed to do. Come in and dominate the game up front.”
The 26-year-old was listed as questionable entering the weekend but it became clear early on at the Superdome on Sunday that he was going to play.
Gardner-Johnson always has a ton of energy but he had even more for this game. His teammates saw it before, during and after the game.
“Seeing how he was acting and reacting to everything, he had that chip on his shoulder,” fellow safety Reed Blankenship said and Gardner-Johnson shouted in the background. “I love playing beside him, love playing with him. And I love the things he brings to the table.”
As reporters filed into the visitors locker room at the Superdome on Sunday afternoon, Gardner-Johnson was sitting by his locker still in full pads and uniform. Gardner-Johnson doesn’t always like to talk to reporters but he was ready this time.
And it was clear just how much this win meant to him.
“It means a lot,” he said. “This team has been through a lot and we stood up through adversity and we played our ass off today. Ain’t nothing else to be said except keep stacking the victories.”
The Eagles’ defense was tremendous on Sunday after a really disappointing performance in Week 2 against the Falcons. Gardner-Johnson had his ups and downs but was a part of a defense that held the Saints to 219 total yards and 12 points. This was the same Saints team that had scored 91 points through the first two weeks of the season.
Gardner-Johnson seemed as annoyed that the Saints were being called the best offense in the league after two weeks as he was about folks counting out the Eagles’ defense.
“We put our head down and get that taste out your mouth,” he said. “I feel so relieved right now. At the end of the day, my team did this one. It wasn’t me. It was my team. Our team came together. A couple guys came out, a couple guys spoke up and a couple guys understood the task at hand. We came through and kicked the door in”
Gardner-Johnson finished the game second on the team in tackles with 8. He also had a pass breakup. And his run stop on Alvin Kamara on a 3rd-and-1 on the final play of the third quarter was huge. The Eagles then stopped the Saints on 4th-and-1 to set up the Eagles’ game-winning touchdown drive.
The game was sealed when Blankenship pulled down an interception with 55 seconds left.
“We knew [Derek Carr] was going to give us one all game,” Gardner-Johnson said. “Everybody want to bet on, ‘Oh, they thought they had us on a little seven route.’ OK, cool. But ain’t nothing go over our head all day. It’s cool. We are the best secondary, best D-line, best back 7 in the league right now. I’m popping it because at the end of the day, they said we was down and out. They go on about last week, now look at you.”
There’s no doubt that the Eagles’ defense showed a lot on Sunday. Vic Fangio’s unit was coming off a really bad performance and ended up completely shutting down the top statistical offense in the NFL.
What did they prove?
“Like Lil Baby say, ‘Can’t be f—ed with,’” Gardner-Johnson said. “Excuse my language. But that’s what it is. When we do our job, we can’t be f—ed with.”