The Chicago Bears are so desperate with their depleted secondary they just added a wolf to their sheep farm. The Bears just struck a deal with 27 year old safety CJ Gardner-Johnson who has had some run-in’s with Chicago receivers in the past. Last year Gardner-Johnson helped the Philadelphia Eagles win their second Superbowl in their franchise history giving the Kansas City Chiefs an old fashioned beat down. The Eagles traded Gardner-Johnson to the Houston Texans in the off-season where he played three games this season & then was released. The Texans head coach said CJ’s release, “was best for the team.”

This month CJ Gardner Johnson found another franchise interested in his services. He signed with the Baltimore Ravens on their practice squad. After a week it was called a mutual decision on his release. Now he will join one of his arch enemies while reuniting with his former coach Dennis Allen who was in New Orleans when he was there. Now Allen has the job of defensive coordinator for the Bears and is using his word to his employers that his guy CJ can get the job done and will not disrupt the team chemistry.

The Chicago Bears are 4-3 for the season. They won 4 straight games after starting 0-2 out of the gates. Last week Caleb Williams did not play well. The Bears defense kept their team in the game versus the Ravens against their 3rd quarterback of the season in veteran Tyler Huntley. The Bears new head coach Ben Johnson thinks Williams’ bad day was not all his fault as he was throwing the ball to the right spots in timing routes. That the receivers stopped their route short of the spot they were supposed to get to. With the Bears defense playing well and Williams showing improvement, maybe a guy like CJ Gardner-Johnson is what they need at this point to give this team a jolt. The Bears lost their best defensive back in Jaylon Johnson who has been sidelined for weeks and had surgery on his core muscle. Tyrique Stevenson is banged up with a shoulder issue and missed Sunday’s game versus Baltimore but is expected back this week. While Kyler Gordon will miss at least 3 more games as he is on the injured reserve. Gardner-Johnson was originally drafted by the Saints in the 4th round of the 2019 NFL draft. He can play safety and can cover the slot receivers which he did for Dennis Allen and the Saints. Last season for the Eagles he had 6 interceptions and returned one for a touchdown. He played in 16 games last year after only playing in 3 regular season games for the Lions in 2023. In seven seasons where he had two stints with the Eagles, Saints that drafted him, and the Lions and Texans. The Bears will be his 5th team already. He has 18 career interceptions of which he had 6 picks in two different seasons and both were with Philadelphia.

CJ Johnson-Gardner is a trash talker along with an instigator as the Bears in the past found out the hard way. In 2020 the Bears wide receiver Javon Wims punched CJ twice in the helmet. Wims said CJ took his mouth piece and spat on him. CJ at the time denied spitting on Wims. Javon would get suspended 2 games by the league for hitting CJ in the helmet. Then in 2021 the Bears met the Saints in the playoffs. The Bears had it in the game plan not to fall for any of CJ’s antics. Another Bears wide receiver may have not gotten the memo, Anthony Miller shoved CJ, and was ejected from the game.

Miller fell right into CJ’s antics and it was game over for the Bears receiver.

Remember when the Chicago Bulls traded for Dennis Rodman who was a Hall of Fame defender and his antics got in the heads of other players? Ask Karl Malone who could not shake Rodman’s antics in the championship series versus the Bulls. CJ Gardner-Johnson is not the missing piece for a Bears championship. Everyone hated Rodman when he played all those years with the bad boys, the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons were a thorn in the Bulls’ sides for years before Chicago slay their demons. The White Sox signed AJ Pierzynski, a key player that helped them win that 2005 World Series title for Chicago. Pierzynski all those years with the Twins he was hated by the White Sox fans. You hope Gardner-Johnson falls in with the Pierzynski and Rodman type guys you hated. Then loved when they are wearing your uniform and representing your city.

I’m not a fan of trash talking corner backs like CJ Gardner-Johnson. The Bengals teams that went deep in post-season seem to have multiple defensive backs that talked trash all game long. Gardner-Johnson has 2 career unsportsman-like conducts called on him. He has racked up six unnecessary roughness penalties in his career. Imagine all the stuff that he’s gotten away with. He certainly provoked those former Bears receivers to hit him in the heat of the moment. The Bears will need to win games to keep this clown happy and not become a cancer in the locker room. These types of guys can turn into a virus that spreads throughout the entire team. The ties he has with Dennis Allen will be important. I like that he can play multiple positions in the secondary. He certainly can help other Bears defensive backs get better by watching his coverage on offensive players. He can spark your team with a big time defensive play at a key point of the game. I think everything needs to be going well because he could also be the added fuel on the fire to send the Bears team into combustion mode. We’ve seen it before with the Jay Cutler’s of the world that wore Bears uniforms. Like an invasion of roaches, it takes awhile to get them all terminated from the locker room. The Bears are playing the Bengals this Sunday. We will see if Gardner-Johnson can contain their stud receivers like Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. The Bears already have the goofy Tyrique Stevenson in their secondary, a guy that did not cover Jayden Daniels’ Hail Mary pass last year because he was too busy taunting the crowd. Too many of these guys will set the fuse that burns the rest of your season away. The Bears are reaching here. It may work, but keep the fire extinguisher handy just in case.