Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson suffered a scary injury on Sunday afternoon, and the update looks even worse than the initial appearance.
On Sunday afternoon, Philadelphia Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson went down with an injury in the first quarter. An initial, non-medical read of the injury looked as though it must have been some sort of rib injury.
While that was close, the result was far worse than anticipated, with it ending up being a lacerated kidney for CJGJ, an incredibly scary thing to read. Anytime an organ is in play, it sounds bad.
Thankfully, Tom Pelissero who first reported the injury also reported that the injury doesn’t need surgery and, while the Eagles don’t know the extent of the injury in context of how long it will keep him out, they don’t expect him to miss the entire season.
M.D. Jesse Morse shared that for cases typical to this injury a three-week timetable is reasonable and also pointed out how the “rib injury” assessment many made at first glance wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson loss is huge, but Eagles have secondary depth
Acquiring Gardner-Johnson from the Saints before the season ended up being one of the best acquisitions of the year. CJGJ leads the league in interceptions and the Eagles only had to give up a fifth- and sixth-round pick to acquire him.
Reed Blankenship stepped up in Gardner-Johnson’s absence Sunday night and picked Aaron Rodgers off, so if the early returns behind Gardner-Johnson are any indication, it looks like they won’t miss a beat. If anything, with such a lead in the NFC, it might give the Eagles time to assess players who haven’t received much playing time yet.
Hopefully, Gardner-Johnson can return to full health soon and get back from a scary injury.