The Buffalo Bills are no strangers to quality safety play. For the better part of the last decade-plus, Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer held down the last level of the defense, and each player made an All-Pro team at least once in their time with the club.
Now, both Poyer and Hyde are no longer with the club. Hyde is officially retired, and Poyer remains unsigned after a productive 2025 season with Buffalo. He has said publicly that he would like to retire as a member of the Bills, and he also knew coming into last season that his playing days were numbered. It doesn’t seem likely that Poyer will play again.
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With both of Buffalo’s top safeties for most of the ’20s at the end of their careers, it’s time for a new crop of players to take the mantle and continue the run of strong play Bills’ fans expect from the positional grouping. In today’s installment of our “91 players in 91 days” series, we discuss a veteran signed to help a new defense take hold this season.
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Name:C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Number: 22
Position: S
Height/Weight: 5’11” 208 lbs.
Age: 28 (29 on 12/20/2026)
Experience/Draft: Selected by the New Orleans Saints in the fourth round (No. 105 overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft
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College: Florida
Acquired: Signed with Buffalo on 3/13/2026
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Gardner-Johnson signed a one-year deal worth $3.5 million this offseason; of that total, $3.015 million is guaranteed. The latter number will be the dead cap charge Buffalo carries if Gardner-Johnson is released. His cap hit for the season is $2.4 million if he makes the 53-man roster.
2025 Recap: Gardner-Johnson was traded to the Houston Texans from the Philadelphia Eagles in March, and while he dealt with a leg injury in training camp that caused him to miss time, he opened as one of Houston’s two starting safeties. He started the Texans’ first three games, all losses, totaling 15 tackles. After that game, Gardner-Johnson was released. Reports vary about why he was released—the Texans said it stemmed from his inability to adapt to DeMeco Ryans’ defensive scheme and his pointing fingers at teammates for coverage mistakes rather than accepting blame himself. Gardner-Johnson denied those allegations. He signed with the Baltimore Ravens practice squad on October 7, but was released a week later without having made an appearance for the team. Gardner-Johnson then signed with the Chicago Bears on October 29; he replaced slot corner Kyler Gordon, and he played very well with the Bears overall. In ten games, he totaled 51 tackles, three sacks, five tackles for loss, two interceptions, four pass breakups, one forced fumble, and five QB hits. In Chicago’s final regular season game, he suffered a concussion, which caused him to miss the Bears’ victory in the Wild Card Round over the Green Bay Packers. He returned to action the following week, totaling four tackles in Chicago’s 20-17 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional Round.
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Positional outlook: Gardner-Johnson is one of six players listed at safety on the current roster. Cole Bishop, Damar Hamlin, Geno Stone, Jalen Kilgore, and Wande Owens are the others. Sam Franklin is listed at defensive back, but he is a safety when he’s not doing his main work on special teams. Jordan Hancock is also listed at defensive back, and he is a safety/slot corner hybrid.
2026 Offseason: Gardner-Johnson was carted off the field with a calf strain on August 1, and while initial fears that he suffered an Achilles tear were proven false, the injury has held him back a bit. Two days after he returned from that calf injury, he suffered another leg injury. Head coach Joe Brady did not provide a timeline for the injury, but he didn’t seem concerned that it would lead to a long-term issue.
2026 Season outlook: If Gardner-Johnson is healthy, he has the ability to serve multiple roles in new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s defense. He is perfectly capable of playing the deep-third of the field, but he can also match man-to-man with both tight ends and wide receivers, and he can also sneak in an blitz hot off the corner to cause chaos in the backfield. Overall, Gardner-Johnson is a complete football player who has an edge that, frankly, the Bills might have been lacking over the last few years.
There’s no question that he’ll start alongside Cole Bishop as long as they both are healthy. The problem is that, at present, neither of them is healthy. Minor preseason dings don’t worry me, but the opportunity to play in a new scheme before the real games start is something I hope that most, if not all, of Buffalo’s defensive starters can take advantage of at some point in these next few weeks.
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Gardner-Johnson’s injury history is extensive, containing foot, knee, calf, and pectoral injuries that have caused him to miss time. He also suffered a lacerated kidney during a November 2022 contest. He’s played just one full slate of games in his career, and that was his rookie season in 2019. If he’s healthy, he has the potential to be a great add for the Bills this season. However, staying healthy has proven to be a challenge for him throughout his career.
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