The NFL regular season has turned over to Week 9, and teams are still looking to make some additions to their roster. On Wednesday, the Chicago Bears decided to add a former Lion to their club.
Dan Wiederer of The Athletic confirmed that the Bears are signing safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson to their active roster on Wednesday. This comes after the Ben Johnson's Bears went on the road and fell 30-16 to the Baltimore Ravens, and felt they needed more on the defensive side. As a result, they brought in a former Lion who didn't have a good tenure in the Motor City.
Former Lion C.J. Gardner-Johnson Joins Bears on Wednesday
The Lions and Gardner-Johnson agreed on a one-year, $8 million deal back in 2023. At the time, it was seen as a nice addition to a secondary that needed some juice, but it didn't work out in their favor.
Gardner-Johnson tore his pectoral muscle during Week 2 of the 2023 season, which forced him to miss the bulk of the regular season before stepping back on the field in December. In three games with Detroit, Gardner-Johnson had 17 total tackles and three pass deflections.
Following the 2023 season, joined the Philadelphia Eagles and took some shots at the Lions in the process. When speaking to Dave Birkett of The Detroit Free Press at media availability before Super Bowl LIX with the Eagles, Gardner-Johnson took some jabs at his former club. He revealed his lone season in Detroit was "hell." He added that the Lions lied to him about their desire to bring him back.
"It was hell. I got lied to, so it was, whatever. I got told, respectfully, I was going to get brought back and didn’t get brought back. And offseason went real for me, signing back here because I wasn’t really tripping on it. It all worked out."C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Whether or not that is true is unknown, but the fact that Gardner-Johnson took some shots at his former team just months after the fact was telling. There were clearly some salty feelings about how his run ended in Detroit, but he didn't take the high road. Instead, he fired off at his former team, and now the Lions could get a chance to play against Gardner-Johnson in Week 18.
There's no indication of whether Gardner-Johnson will even be able to stick with the Bears, as he was released by both the Texans and Ravens this season. Based on those moves, it looks like he wore out his welcome quickly there, and it'll be interesting to see if that's the case in a battered Bears secondary.