Eagles C.J. Gardner-Johnson chasing Super Bowl win while backing up his endless trash talk

C.J.Gardner-Johnson called the Saints “pretenders” after their fast 2-0 start.He mocked the Giants for letting go of Saquon Barkley.He told the Commanders’ Jayden Daniels — the losing quarterback in the NFC Championship game — to watch the Eagles play in Super Bowl 2025 from “Cancun University.” It was a call-back to Daniels writing “Cancun on 3” one week earlier during a postgame jersey swap with the Lions’ Terrion Arnold, after he ended Detroit’s season.Oh, and the NFL’s best trash-talker also had 12 passes defended, six interceptions and a forced fumble in his return to the Eagles.“I think the way I play is overshadowed because I talk a lot of crap,” Gardner-Johnson said after Friday’s practice.

“Respectfully, I think the way I help lead this team is overlooked.”Gardner-Johnson was drafted by the Saints and spent last season with the Lions, though he played in just six total games due to a torn pectoral muscle.But it feels like he was born to play for Eagles fans — and not just because Philadelphia has reached the Super Bowl in both seasons (2022 and 2024) that Gardner-Johnson has worn the uniform.“This year I had to learn that being back and playing a full, healthy year was something of a blessing,” he said.

“In order to come back [from injury] and play football, that’s what helped me show who I am.Toughness, gritty.

Everybody looks at me in a crazy light, but I love football.”After he re-signed in the offseason, Gardner-Johnson said sorry to “obnoxious” Eagles fans for the shots he took from afar.The best form of apology, however, was his hand in building arguably the NFL’s best secondary.“Oh, he brings that swagger back,” safety Reed Blankenship told reporters during the regular season.

“We missed that a little bit last year.”In a sport watered down by clichés, Gardner-Johnson stands out for speaking his mind on the field and in the media.After Gardner-Johnson was ejected for taunting in the sec...