PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Emergency pod: Philadelphia Eagles bring back C.J. Gardner-Johnson

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

The Eagles appear to have filled their need at safety with an old friend. After an acrimonious split last offseason, C.J. Gardner-Johnson is back in Philadelphia, this time to play in back end of Vic Fangio’s defense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And welcome to the P. H.L.Y. Eagles podcast, our second emergency podcast of the day, our third podcast of the day. Bo Wolf, Zach Berman, we are here to talk about the Eagles bringing back C.J. Gardner Johnson to the team after trying to re-sign him last off season, a bit of an acrimonious split. C.J. Gardner Johnson throws some shade of Jonathan Gannon's way on the way out. Now he's back to play for Vic Frizzan. Fangio, and we are here to talk about it. But first, Zach, I do need to know what would Jed Bartlett make of the RFK Jr. Aaron Rogers ticket? Wow, I was pumped for the show. I have nothing for you there, honestly. I don't know. He would say that, I don't know. Honestly, I have a C.J. Gardner Johnson opinion here. I have nothing on Aaron Rogers. I saw that on my timelines, familiar with what you're talking about. I can't tell you what the West Wing would think of that. That would be actually, though Jed Bartlett did go up in re-election against a politician who did play football, I believe, Governor Richie from Florida.

But I don't think he was as accomplished as Aaron Rogers. In any event, what matters. Potentially. What matters tonight is that C.J. Carter Johnson. is coming back to Philadelphia. This is CJ's day. This is CJ's day. It's certainly not Aaron Rogers' day on a pre-Hs.

Aaron Rogers wants to be Aaron Rogers' day. I think we all know that. The man is pathologically addicted to attention and not a good guy. So, speaking of not good guys. Let's talk about CJ Gardner Johnson coming back, Zach. What are your thoughts? Is it a little bit too convenient or is it the perfect fit for what the Eagles need? in this Vic Fangio defense?

I don't want to say perfect. I think it's a great sign or a great signing for the Eagles. I mean, when I say I hesitated there because price is always a factor and personality fits always a factor, right? But I do think from a football perspective, they missed him last year. I thought last year they should have signed him. I said that. I look back to what I wrote last year.

I said this is a bad outcome for both sides. And I thought the Eagles missed him. last year, both his play and his personality. I thought that that swagger, that competitive zeal that he brought to the defense was missing last year. They missed that. And so this is a good, and the age profile, like if you were just adding a guy who just turned 26 years old, I understand there's some injury history there, but he's been a high

level player. He's versatile. I said before this, I didn't know what the money would be. You know, you and I had a show when we first talked. talked about them and you thought they would get them for less than they did last year. And so I kind of thought, okay, maybe that's the case. We need to see what that up to 33 million is here. That up to is doing a lot in that sentence.

I would not believe that as a reasonable reflection of what the contract is. But the cap did go up and money is going around at safety. And so we'll see what this contract is. but I thought the Eagles mishandled the C.J. Garner Johnson situation last year, and the fact that they're making amends for it here and bringing him back is a good outcome for the defense.

I look based on your facial expressions. I mean, you're not keeping a good poker face here. I'm curious to see what you think. Yeah. I'm skeptical here, okay? Because what you are saying and what people are saying is, oh, boy, they missed him last year. Yeah.

Who cares about what? last year. Move forward. I don't care about whether they needed him on the defense last year. They missed his personality. That means nothing to me. If you want to tell me that he is the versatile chess piece that Vic Fangio needs who can who can fill a safety and a nickel spot. And it's an, it's an ideal fit because if Sidney Brown grows into the player that you think he can be, this is a fine problem to have because C.J. Gardner Johnson can just become the slot player. These guys can be interchangeable that you're not going to know what is coming at the snap. Fine. Tell me that. Enough. Enough of they missed his personality last year.

Is that the reason they're going to release Josh Sweck because he was too nice? Like, this is so stupid. And the idea that they have to rectify this mistake of not signing him last off season, that's not how it works. Okay. The guy has missed 24 games over the last three seasons and played in 25. If they're paying him more than they offered him last year, that's dumb. That's why they're not doing that. The reporting on that contract is going to ultimately be reflected that this is not that expensive of a deal, is my guess. Now, if this is part of the overall plan in fixing the secondary and they're signing somebody else, all the better, we'll see what they do at linebacker. But if this is just C.J. Gardner Johnson, this is so silly because I had to, I had to sell

Devante Parker two hours ago. How much Devante Parker is being thrown under the bus. And I got it. I gotta just be the guy who's zigging when people are zagging or whatever it is. But I am not super excited about C.J. Garner Johnson coming back. I think there were plenty of options. I don't, it feels too convenient to me. And that is why my antenna is up. I don't care that they missed him last season. Yeah, I respect your antenna.

Like your antenna has guided you in a good direction in my time working with you. I also think respectfully that you view any type of reunion as unimaginative. When perhaps like every time they bring in someone or they talk to someone who they have a history with, you consider unimaginative. And to me, like look at the player. Tell me who they have brought back who worked out well. They who they brought back that worked out well. I would need to look through.

So give me some examples of players that they brought back. I mean, this would actually be a good grading scale, players who have returned. I'm saying how often do you get a chance here, Nick Fools. Good answer. Okay, good answer. Yeah, thank you. That was my argument. No, so, look, you get a chance to bring back a 26-year-old.

Okay, like he's this, if you just saw the profile of the player and didn't consider that, if he had the season that he had last year in Philly, if he had that in Kansas City, And the chiefs didn't keep him. Then he went to Detroit. And you would say, man, you get a 26-year-old who's a ball hawk, who's versatile, okay? This is a good sign. Like, yeah, yeah, tell me that. But the fact that.

So you don't like the personality. That the message that is being disseminated to reporters, and I'm not talking about you, is they need his personality. Who cares? That's not the point. Well, I'll push back on you there. I'm not saying that's why you sign him, right? You don't sign, just like you don't sign someone for leadership or you don't sign someone because they're a character guy or something. You can pay somebody less to be an asshole on the field.

Like that's fine. Yeah, you don't sign him for a feciness. But I do think, I do think that you think about like the overall package. And I think the, I do believe the Eagles were missing that last year. and I think the defense can benefit from it this year. Clearly you disagree. That's the great thing about this show, or one of the great things about this show,

is that reasonable minds can disagree. I'm making people very mad. I'm sorry to rain on your parade. He loves the Devante Parker signing, though. Okay, so. Yeah, I think Devonte Parker's going to trouble. He's not going to be on the weak one roster, but he's. Yeah, look, the injury thing, I get that.

last year's injury is like these are two years ago he had what a ruptured spleen was it with the eagles okay i need a foreign peck last year yeah it sounds like freak things but like maybe the guy's heart pecks and thing yeah the ruptured spleen is an internal injury that's not like the way you're sure but if you are an undersized player and you keep getting hurt you have to factor that in like that's part of the reason that people would question your longevity lacerated kidney Thank you. Upset spleen, lacerated kidney. It's all the same.

It's all the same. Yeah. They both hurt. How about that? They both hurt. Of course, we all remember the Asante Samuel lacerated groin, which, who, that sounded tough. I didn't remember that.

You see. It must have predated you. They announced that in the press box, lacerated groin. And it turned out he had a cut where you don't want to have a cut. That does sound like it would hurt. Yeah. That's tough. Retired on the spot. Yeah. So I see this and I say like CJ Gardner Johnson is going to help this defense in terms of I thought the versatility was an asset.

Like last year he bounced between different spots when Avanti Maddox went down. When I say last year two years ago, he could help you in the slot. He was a ball hawking type. Now, it's funny when you talk kind of about like whisper campaigns or like the way you sell something. When the Eagles didn't keep CJ, I think they were really trying to sell the fact that, well, this guy freelances. He doesn't play within structure. He's kind of, you know, he might be tough in the building, right? And clearly, like, bygones or bygones here because I do think, now you could say it's unimaginative or I,

do think they saw that some of of what he had like you you tolerate talent and I think they they there's a lot of talent here to tolerate and I also think that well let's let's talk about the personality because the the thing that you heard during that season and thank you for the super chat for Cole for for having my back is like in terms of the personality what they liked about it is that like he brought an edge to practice that brought that that made practice more competitive for everybody and sort of lifted the tide of like what was being accomplished during those sessions. It made everything more competitive. That I that is cool like all the power to and that that I am willing to buy that and that is why you would expect that like Nick Siriani

would go to bat to bring this guy back because he loves that competitive edge on the field during the work week of the regular season during the doldrums when you know you can things can get a little bit complacent and maybe that maybe that's what happened for the egos last season. I'm just saying the the idea that like you're going through the spell of the downturn last year and you're like, oh man, if only we had C.J. Garner Johnson here, this wouldn't happen. Like that's not how time works. Okay. We can't just roll the clock back and say we should have done this. Let's go do it now. that's why I'm a little bit just on edge about is this is this too easy and oh but have you ever made a decision in your life?

I think that personality is real and maybe they like that is a dynamic that they want in the building. Yeah. Well, well, yeah. I mean, have you ever made a decision in your life where you say, well, now I have more information and I might have done this differently, right? Like that's that that's like a very mature approach to something. And if that's what the Eagles are doing here, that's a mature approach.

I actually think it's more problematic if you just put your feet in the sand and be like, well, this is what we felt a year ago. We felt mift. So let's just move on, right? You know, that's, that's, I think that there is a, with more information on, on both sides, you can. I like the point from PSU and the chip. Competition is one of the top two of the five. principle. I also disagree with Cole, like philosophically, if you agree with something,

it's, it's not looking at it through, through rose-colored glasses. It's, it's simply like, well, he's not calling you, Pollyannish. He's just having my back for people being bad for not loving everyone. But look, I, you can call me Pollyannish. The thing that I try to be consistent with on the show, okay, is that I try to establish opinions ahead of time so that when a move's made, I'm not like just just reversing course based on it. Now you factor in the contract and the situation like in the context. I get that, right? But like the reason why I said what I said about C.J. Gardner Johnson before this was if they signed CJ Gardner Johnson, you know, the reason why I said I wouldn't like an Andrew Van Ginkle signing before this was so when they signed Andrew Van Ginkle or if they signed Andrew Van Ginkle and I was like, oh, this is if I said this is a great move, I'd be a total hypocrite.

just roll the tape back, right? Like, I try to establish, I don't want to say takes, like, but I try to give you a sense of what I'm thinking on these players. And I'm talking not to you, but the audience here, like before free agency hits. So when free agency hits, you say, all right, like, Zach's being consistent here. And I said, last week, I said, if they can get past though, the exit, because there are human dynamics at play, right? Like, if, Ultimately, the Eagles said last year, we value you at X, right? C.J. Gardner Johnson did not value him at X. He valued himself at Y.

All right. It is, I imagine it's tough. Like, if you have an employer who says, like, you're worth this to us, right? And you say, no, I think I'm worth that. And the employer's like, yeah, you might think that, but this is what we're willing to pay you. Like, you could take that personally, right? So for both sides to come back here a year later and again, we need to see the contract, I was curious if they would get past that or whatever the Eagles felt when he left,

if the Eagles would be anchored to that or if they would adjust. I actually think it's a credit to both sides here that they're willing to make this work. And especially because, by the way, like Diana Rusini, who's awesome, she said the Titans were interested in CJ Gardner Johnson. Now, of course, I don't think he would come to Philly for less money, but it's not as if the Eagles were the only team coming after him. So I'm curious to see. And yeah, Barbara Carroll says he trashed the Eagles and fans.

He very much did. He was very outspoken about all of that. And that's why I was curious to see if they would make this work. The fact that if and when you can patch it up, like here, by the way, Jeremiah Triler is someone who he left. It was very acrimonious. He called Andy Reid. He came back and he had a Pro Bowl, all pro season in 2004,

help the Eagles go to the Super Bowl, right? So, yeah, sometimes it's important to be mature and both sides say, all right, last year did not happen the way we want. Let's run this back. Yeah, and obviously, like, the actual terms of this deal are going to matter. Like, you know, three, what is it? What are they saying? Up to 36.

Three for 33. No, three for 33. Like, I doubt that this is a real three-year deal. I would assume it's a two-year deal. And I would imagine that the up-to is doing a lot of work there. The upside is obvious and significant. He is only 26 years old. He will be 27 in December.

He is a really impressive playmaker. And as I said before, he provides the versatility that you could really see being used well with Vic Fangio. And there is multiplicity that allows you to fill out the rest of the roster however the market sees fit. If, you know, if, and if, if, if, if, if Sydney Brown blossoms, great, you move C.J. Gardner around. If, if he's got to hang up with the recovery, C.J. Gardner Johnson can stay at safety and

you find another nickel or whatever it is. And the draft, you can find whatever is the best value in the draft and C.J. Gardner Johnson can fill in after that. He has the upside of being a, a difference-making player in the back end. That is true. He also came up with, I think, one of the funniest, nicknames of all time and Slant Boy, all the, all the credit to him, hilarious. The downside is there is a real combustibility to his personality and to, and he has

had trouble staying on the field for two years in a row that may backfire. And, you know, like, knowing what we think we know about how the dolphins, veteran guys in the secondary last year clashed with Vic Van Gogh. NGO. I would imagine that C.J. Gardner Johnson is someone who could do the same. We'll see how that goes. So it is just a, like, it's a bit of a powder keg. And if he, if he is exploding against the other team, great. But I would be surprised if it is a thing that is a happy marriage for two years, two or three years. I'm curious here, this is a super chat, or it's not a super chat, but it's a star, at from Riley S.

Bo, what would the real guarantee terms need to be for you to feel good about it? It's less about what the actual money is and more about what they do with the rest of the back seven. You know, I would I would guess it's probably like eight or nine per year, right? But if it's just C.J. Garner Johnson and Jerome Baker, that's a little bit underwhelming. It's not terrible. I think you certainly could have done a lot worse.

And there are not infinite resources. All of that's true. But I think I just have to see the fuller picture first. Okay. Yeah. I like the player. I like the personality. Again, maybe I'm biased based on,

I thought he was really good for the Eagles. And I understand that he freelance there. but I think like guys who make plays, he makes plays at an impressive clip. There are people that I trust, like Malcolm Jenkins, by the way, who's, who's said things to me,

or who's like, I've talked about C.J. Gardner Johnson, and, and, you know, he's, he's kind of vouched for that personality.

And I, I think that there's, I say this all the time. Like, I don't condone, uh, like criminal activity or anything like that, right?

but when your when your job on the football field is is like to hit people or get hit every play like sometimes it's good to have a degree of nastiness right or or like a competitive yeah now not everyone has said my point is this I'm not articulating it well you don't need all choir boys on the field right like sometimes an instigator is a good thing and you can say combustible but you could say powder cake, but sometimes you need a little spice to make a food good, right? Like if food's bland,

if food's bland, you're not going to like it, right? Sometimes you need to get that paprika or that, you know, whatever it may be, right? And that could be what C.J. Gartor Johnson is is he helps make the dish. And so I, yeah. Look at you finding this as you, as you finding. Good for you.

I, I, I, I kept, I, I wrote this in my, um, in my, if I were Howie Roseman thing, I said, go after Xavier McKinney, right? I said, like the moderate price option that I like is, uh, is Jordan for. But I said the two variables that would really watch out for is if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're agreeable to a return for CJ Gardner Johnson, I would really like that. And I said if, uh, if you evaluate germany chin as a safety, I would really like that. Now you could say I'm covering a lot of bases there, right? So I can claim credit for a lot of things. Okay. But, um, but, uh, uh, I, I didn't know how those human dynamics would work, right? Like, uh, you know, I mean, without. Well, I mean, it makes sense. You've got, you've got milk boy,

uh, at one spot in this at safety. So you need, you know, you do need to balance that out. Yeah, yeah. I think there is a degree of maturity in a return. And I understand, like, that might be idealistic. This might have just been the team that offered the most money, right? And you go to the team that offered the most money. What's that? Beach.

Somebody wants to know what the quah that I'm drinking. Okay. Sometimes it's just a matter of, like, the money talks. But for the Eagles, perhaps it was spin last year. But there's a reason why they offered what they offered, right? they made a valuation of him last year. And they did not get that. And then they had a chance.

And they could say all they want, by the way. They could say all they want about, you know, they moved on. They signed James Bradbury. There's only, they brought back Fletcher Cox. The cap dollars were what they were. You can make things work. Now, you can't, you can't move mountains. But you can make things work.

And, and I think when C.J. Garner Johnson left for a one year deal up to $8 million with the Lions, it was because he didn't want to come back here at that point, right? Like he had decided that he felt a certain way about the Eagles. Well, also the Eagles allocated that money to Bradbury. I don't think that they were. No, they allocated the initial offer, right? I think the one year $8 million offer was something that they probably could have made work at that point. But I think it was, I think the negotiations were acrimonious to use the term that you used at the start here.

So, yeah, so I like that. And, and yet, Jesus, Zoidberg says, wasn't one of the rules, was the signed players who want to be here? Yeah, I think C.J. Garner Johnson wants to be here. I think that he probably saw, like, I think he had a lot of fun playing here in 2022. Now, everyone seemed to have fun.

They were winning a lot of games, right? And it was a different defense. But I think that he made this decision to come back. He could have gone with Denard Wilson in Tennessee, but he made this decision to come back. Well, I mean, also, presumably they were paying him the most money. Sure, sure. But.

Okay. So let's spin this forward a bit, okay? Do you think this is it at safety, or do you think he's a piece at safety? I think this is probably it at safety. I would agree with that. I would agree with that. I think CJ, Sidney Brown, read Blankenship, you have some versatility there. I think they still add a corner.

Who are the leaders of this defense moving forward? Well, that's a great question. They hope Nukobi, but you don't even know if Nicopi's going to be like a long-term piece here. The longer free agency goes on, the more likely it is that he's starting week one. True. Next to Zach Cunningham or something. Yeah, I mean, for this year, you're counting on Slay and Brennan Graham, but like moving forward, big picture here, it's a great question. I mean, you want Bryce Huff to be one of those guys, right?

I don't know Bryce Huff. I can't tell you. I'm very curious to see what they do at that second corner spot. That to me, I still think there could be a big trade for a guy and a guy who could be a high profile, high-price player at corner. I'm not rolling that out. So that's the part that I'm curious to see. Okay.

And then also, by the way, I mean, if Sidney Brown's a player, Sydney Brown's someone who, like, they like the skill set, obviously, but they also really like the personality characteristics when they signed him. That could be a leader on this defense. I obviously haven't mentioned John Carter or Jordan Davis, right? Like, those are important players for them. Nolan Smith is someone who is supposed to have those, you know, leadership character. So we'll see. But they are counting on guys to grow into those roles. I do think there is a there is a possibility that they sign a safety and they just they just make C.J. Gardner Johnson a nickel. But that up the 33 million must be yeah. Yeah, that up to must be doing a lot of work in that sentence if he's if he's the nickel for you.

Yeah. I mean, I would be so I would imagine that there are like a lot of that is playing time incentive. Yeah. And we'll see or, you know, pro ball incentives and stuff like that. I would I would bet that it's a lower number. If I said to you, it's two for 16, would you go over or under? That sounds about right to me. Okay. Two for 16.

So eight million year. Yeah. That sounds about right. Which is what he was now. You say he didn't do anything last year to earn a bigger deal, but there's more money this year. Right. Right. So that's that's the reality.

Everyone's getting paid more. Like Brian John, I'm sorry, Brian Burns didn't do as much last year to earn 30 million, but he's an elite edge rusher and there's money to go around. So, okay, before we close out a couple other things, that's just stuff's going around. We're still waiting on Josh Schwett news and the nugget from Jeff McLean that the Eagles might just release him, which seems bizarre and also doesn't make a lot of sense cap-wise. but once that report is out there, you sort of imagine that that's the way it's going.

We'll see if they do something with Hassan Redick. One other thing I wanted to ask you about, and this was a question, I don't know if they asked you this when you were doing Chicago Radio today, Zach, but they asked me this on the show with the CHGO guys today. They cannot find a trade partner for Justin Fields. I got this question too, yeah. Do you think the Eagles would be interested in Justin Fields? And then I will tell you what I said.

And what if the offer was two fifth round picks? The answer I said was yes. I think that the Eagles value backup quarterback, right? If you can take a swing on a player who has that type of talent isn't expensive, like, salary-wise for you relative to what Marcus Marriota just got paid, right? It's half of what Mario Art just got paid. And, I mean, has talent. And if something happens to jailing, he's proven that he can play, number one, but also if he plays well for you, then there's some optionality after the season, right?

I mean, I don't want to say you would tag him and trade him, but there's, I well, actually, I don't know what the optionality would be there, but you can figure that out. If nothing else, he helps the compit formula. But, yeah, but he would help this year. That's the bottom of mind. He'd be an upgrade. he's a better option than Tanner McKee, and you just never know what could happen.

Yeah. You can also trade him again if someone gets hurt in the hand. Everything that we know about the Eagles tells us that they would absolutely be interested in that price. I mean, it's basically a supersized version of what they did with Gardner Minshu, right? Yeah. Like if the price has dropped. They had Minchin for two years.

I'm sorry to interrupt. No, that's right. But like, you know, if they are the quarterback developers, Yeah. You know, he is a cheap backup for a year two or for this year. And you can take another year to evaluate Tanner McKee. And there's a good chance that you're going to be able to flip him for more. And if not, you're probably going to get a good compick, like you just said.

And in a crazy situation, like he gives you a better chance to win, presumably, than most other guys out there. If the price has fallen that much in Chicago was that desperate to get him out of the building, then yeah, I think they would absolutely be interested in him. Mac Jones went for what, a six and a seven? I'm sorry, it happened over the weekend. But I would think Fields would fetch more than Mac Jones would. I mean, if I'm the Bears, I would just keep them at that point.

Yeah, but you do. You do got to worry about the locker room. Sure. But sure. I just so, like, I mean, I don't mean, I don't mean to pat Howie on the back here, but I saw in 2016 when they drafted Carson number two. like San Bradford was pissed off, right? Now they were going to make San Bradford the starter.

But the Eagles, the Eagles held on their Bradford, and you can't count on Teddy, on like Teddy Bridgewater getting hurt, right? You can't count on that. But the point was, like, you don't need to trade someone just because they want to be traded, right? And so if fields, if you trade two fives for fields, and then in training camp, someone gets hurt somewhere else. Or your own guy gets hurt. Or your own guy, yeah.

It's like the Jimmy G thing. Like they put them to the side. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that's what I would do for sure. Okay. Anything else you're expecting tonight? No, I mean, looking forward to writing these grades up.

I didn't quite know we would have some spice for this grade. But now we got a little paprika in there. Someone said pepperica is used for color only? Is that right? There's a little, there's some flavor to paprika. Yeah. Now it is paprika. Oh, it's paprika.

It's not paprika. It's sorry. It's okay. It's like when people say espresso instead of espresso, right? Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. There's another one like that that does ground my gears, but I can't remember what it does. That's a good story.

Thank you. So we've done this three times today. It's been fun. And I don't know if we're going to have a fourth or not. We'll see. But these are great. I appreciate someone that we had a real good number for the live audience. That's awesome to see, a little prime time viewing tonight.

There you go. Yeah. Must have been the fireworks. All right. I guess that'll do it for this emergency pod on the addition, the bringing back of C.J. Garner Johnson in the house. exciting, exciting stuff. We will talk about whatever else happens.

Thanks to everybody for watching and listening for Zach and Julia. I'm Bo. We will talk to you later. And as always, we love you.