Eagles’ C.J. Gardner-Johnson backing up 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 second half of a Week 16 loss to the Commanders — and the Eagles secondary promptly fell apart without him — he immediately owned his need to mature.

“Saying the things I say, doing the things I do, people look at it as scripted,” Gardner-Johnson said. “Nah, you’re just not used to it. Go look at old-school football: Ed Reed did the same thing. Ray Lewis did the same thing. Chad Ochocinco did the same. Deion [Sanders] was three times worse. I’m not worried about what I say. I’m worried about if I can back it up, which I can.”

Peers surveyed by The Athletic voted Gardner-Johnson as the biggest trash-talker — or, described a different way, “the most annoying player” — in the NFL in each of the past two seasons.

“I’m going to have fun, but I’m also going to be who I am and I’m not going to take away from the team,” Gardner-Johnson said. “When you are one of those guys who is as open and honest as possible, you can’t get upset at that because I want the same in return.”

But Gardner-Johnson also wants a different label. His teams have gone to the playoffs in five of six career seasons and he has been in three straight NFC Championship games, which makes him a winner.

“It’s rare to do that,” Gardner-Johnson said. “It’s not an individual thing. It’s a team thing. … How are you conducting yourself on a long road? Being back in the same state, you can’t put anything else besides ‘winner’ beside my name, my teammates’ name and everybody in this locker room.”

Gardner-Johnson barked all season long that the path to the Super Bowl in the NFC ran through Philadelphia. But he said the same last season in Detroit.

Is that just “yap, yap, yap,” as one player called Gardner-Johnson’s words in the survey?

“The message is like, ‘Have faith in your team,’ ” Gardner-Johnson said. “If you can’t say that, why are you talking?”

In one week’s time, the Eagles and Chiefs will let their play do the final talking.

“A lot of guys say, ‘I want to win,’ but in order to win it starts somewhere,” Gardner-Johnson said. “A moment at practice, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and ask ‘What am I here for?’ Are you here to be OK? Are you here to be a great teammate? Are you here to be a champion?’ I think this locker room is built on champions.”