There’s something to be said about having the ability to get under someone else’s skin — about being able to draw someone out of their best route of thinking and performing because you bother them so much.
It’s a quality that most people would want to avoid. For Philadelphia Eagles veteran safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, it’s a quality that’s made him infamous in NFL circles and could be, along with his talent, one of the reasons he’s on the path to having a lengthy professional football career.
In an anonymous poll of 110 NFL players by The Athletic released on November 27, Gardner-Johnson was the runaway winner in response to a question: “Most annoying player in the NFL?”
Gardner-Johnson wound up with 20.9 percent of the vote, far outdistancing Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Christian Wilkins in second place with 11.9 percent.
It was the second year in a row Gardner-Johnson topped a specific category in The Athletic’s anonymous poll, with the “Most Annoying” category changed from when he topped the list for “Biggest Trash Talker” in 2023.
From The Athletic: “Last season we asked players to name the biggest trash-talker. This year, we broadened the question to most annoying, leaving it to the players’ discretion to decide what qualified as annoying. Well, last year’s biggest trash-talker, Philadelphia Eagles defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson, took the crown again.”
Gardner-Johnson Has Long History of NFL Fines
Gardner-Johnson was 1 of 2 future NFL cornerbacks on his high school football team at Cocoa High in Cocoa, Florida, alongside Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Jamel Dean.
Gardner-Johnson went on to star at the University of Florida and he New Orleans Saints drafted Gardner-Johnson in the fourth round (No. 105 overall) in the 2019 NFL draft. He became a part-time starter as a rookie before becoming a full-time starter in his second season.
One thing Gardner-Johnson did from the moment his NFL career began was start to rack up fines from the NFL. Since 2019, Gardner-Johnson has been fined 9 times for “agitator” type incidents, including twice for fighting and once for unsportsmanlike conduct. Through 11 games in 2024, he already has 3 fines for taunting.
What’s interesting about Gardner-Johnson is that in 2022, he had a career high 67 tackles and led the NFL with 6 interceptions in just 12 games and helped lead Philadelphia to the Super Bowl.
Ironically, it was also the first year Gardner-Johnson went through a full season without receiving a fine from the NFL.
Gardner-Johnson on Second Stint With Eagles
This is the second stint with the Eagles for Gardner-Johnson in his 6-year NFL career.
His first, in 2022, came after the Saints traded him to the Eagles in August 2022 along with a 2025 seventh round pick in exchange for a 2023 fifth round pick and 2024 sixth round pick.
Gardner-Johnson signed a 1-year, $6.5 million contract with the Detroit Lions in 2023 and only played 3 regular-season games because of a torn pectoral muscle but returned for the playoffs and helped lead the Lions to the NFC Championship Game.
The Eagles made the decision to bring back Gardner-Johnson following his brief sojourn to Detroit, signing him to a 3-year, $27 million contract in March 2024.
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