Buffalo Bills veteran safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson is nursing a lower right calf injury, one day after being carted off the practice field, ESPN reported Sunday.
Gardner-Johnson sustained the injury in a non-contact situation after defending against a run play during 11-on-11 team drills.
At least one teammate said he wasn’t worried.
“I walked up to him, and I told him, ‘You all right? Take care of yourself. Can you walk?'” left tackle Dion Dawkins said after practice. “And he got up, and he did his thing. He could put weight on his legs, so he can walk. So we all know that injury is 100% in this league, but he’s all right. And I got the message from coaches that he’s all right and they’re going to do their protocol. He’ll get … whatever he has to get, and he’ll be right back in the loop.
“… But C.J. is OK, but it’s a scary thing. … But C.J. is a dog, as we all know. So if anybody’s going to push through something the right way, it’d be C.J.”
Gardner-Johnson, 28, won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2024 season before he was traded to the Houston Texans on March 11, 2025.
He played just three games with the Texans before catching on with Chicago and playing seven more contests with the Bears. He totaled 66 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions in 2025.
Gardner-Johnson has 20 interceptions, 370 tackles and seven sacks in 87 career games (71 starts) with the New Orleans Saints (2019-21), Eagles (2022, 2024), Detroit Lions (2023), Texans and Bears.
