Big Time Defender Suddenly Available to the Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings don’t necessarily need a safety for Brian Flores’ defense, but if the club wanted to get deeper, the Houston Texans forged a path on Tuesday by stunningly releasing C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
The Houston Texans oddly cut ties with a renowned defender on Tuesday, making him available to the Vikings and 30 other teams.
The well-known defender is now on the market, and in theory, Minnesota could pounce, depending on the priorities in 2025 and beyond.
Houston Turns Heads by Cutting C.J. Gardner-Johnson; Vikings Could Snoop Around, in Theory
Gardner-Johnson is a Top 15 safety in the pros, at least over the last several seasons.
Texans Part Ways with C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Somehow, Gardner-Johnson is out in Houston. ESPN’s DJ Bien-Aime wrote Tuesday, “In a surprise move, the Texans released safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson on Tuesday, the team announced. In three starts, Gardner-Johnson had 15 tackles with no interceptions or pass breakups.”
The Texans traded their 2022 first-round pick — left guard Kenyon Green — to the Philadelphia Eagles for Gardner-Johnson in March, hoping to add a ball hawk. Gardner-Johnson had six interceptions in 2024 for the Eagles in their march to a Super Bowl title.”
KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson cited “friction behind the scenes” regarding Gardner-Johnson’s release. He mentioned, “criticism of teammates in the secondary, including the size of one player’s contract, complaints about his role, including a desire to blitz more frequently, and a trade request.”
Teams Will Lineup for Gardner-Johnson’s Services
A Super Bowl champion last year with the Philadelphia Eagles, Gardner-Johnson is a stud. He’s one of those players whose resume doesn’t quite include a Pro Bowl, but the man passes the eye test as a Pro Bowl-caliber player on most Sunday afternoons. Think: Chad Greenway’s reputation of yesteryear.
Here’s his Pro Football Focus resume since entering the pros as a 4th-Round pick by the New Orleans Saints in 2019:
2019: 70.9
2020: 60.3
2021: 62.2
2022: 65.0
2023: 61.7
2024: 770
2025: 63.4 (thru 3 games)
It’s also worth noting that Gardner-Johnson played 1,170 snaps for the Eagles last year during their Lombardi run. He was not a footnote. The man was a full-time starting safety in an elite defense that won the chip.
The Vikings’ Current Safeties
Of course, the safety spot is not a pressing need in 2025 for Flores. Harrison Smith has returned from an unknown ailment, and the group is now at full strength.
These are the current safeties in the mix for Minnesota:
- Harrison Smith
- Josh Metellus
- Theo Jackson
- Jay Ward
- Tavierre Thomas
- K’Von Wallace (Practice Squad)
Ward stood off the page during Smith’s two-game absence, and Jackson has logged a 74.4 PFF mark entering Week 4.
Therefore, any exploration of Gardner-Johnson’s free-agent services would be about adding the utmost depth and hedging the bet against injury. Close followers of Vikings football know that injuries have already rocked the enterprise, and the calendar hasn’t even turned to October.
A Plan for Life after Harrison Smith?
Meanwhile, Harrison Smith is 36. He’ll turn 37 right after the 2025 season winds down. Many were unsure if Smith would return in 2025 during the offseason, and with his age-37 season on the horizon, he’s virtually guaranteed to retire next offseason or after the 2026 campaign.
Adding Gardner-Johnson, who will be affordable because the Texans already paid him, could set Minnesota up nicely for life after Smith.
It boils down to whether Minnesota would have the necessary workload to appease Gardner-Johnson this season. The man is a starter, and Flores’ defense doesn’t have an opening at the moment unless it benched Jackson, for example.
CBS Sports on Gardner-Johnson
Robby Kalland of CBS Sports added context to Gardner-Johnson’s release Tuesday: “The Texans acquired Gardner-Johnson in an offseason trade with the Eagles, sending offensive lineman Kenyon Green to Philadelphia and swapping a 2026 fifth-round pick for a 2026 sixth-round pick in the process.”
“The trade did not work out well for either team, as the Eagles released Green during training camp and now Gardner-Johnson is off the Texans’ roster. Gardner-Johnson started all three games for the Texans, tallying 15 tackles in Houston’s three losses. Houston apparently decided they wanted to go in a different direction with their secondary after the rough start to the year, and Gardner-Johnson received his release.”
Gardner-Johnson led the NFL in interceptions in 2022.
“Without Gardner-Johnson, the Houston secondary will rely on nickel Jalen Pitre and backup safety M.J. Stewart to fill the void left by the veteran, who must not have fit what they wanted from that spot. As for what’s next for Gardner-Johnson, he looks for a new team once again. He has changed teams every offseason for the past four years, including two stints in Philadelphia,” Kalland continued.
“A return to the Eagles seems highly unlikely given his comments about Vic Fangio and the Eagles’ organization after the trade, saying they were ‘scared of a competitor.'”
Houston will eat around $9 million in dead cap with the move.
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