Plot twist: Eagles trading C.J. Gardner-Johnson to Texans

C.J. Gardner-Johnson's second stint with the Eagles will end the same way that his first did — after one season.

According to Adam Schefter and DJ Bien-Aime of ESPN, the Eagles are trading Gardner-Johnson to the Houston Texas as part of a deal that will bring back offensive lineman Kenyon Green. The duo say that the Eagles are also swapping a 2026 sixth-round pick for a 2026 fifth-round pick with the Texans. 

Gardner-Johnson was an Eagle in 2022, and then departed in free agency to join the Detroit Lions for the 2023 season. He returned to the Eagles on a three-year/$27 million deal last offseason, a pact that guaranteed him $10 million. It was essentially a two-year deal, as the Eagles could get out of it after 2025 without any dead money. That makes you wonder if after winning Super Bowl LIX, Gardner-Johnson's camp was pushing for a new deal that the Eagles didn't want to give the 27-year-old. 

Make no mistake, though, Gardner-Johnson brought an edge back with him this past season that the Eagles seemed to miss when they collapsed down the stretch of the 2023 campaign. He also had six interceptions and 59 combined tackles, so the Eagles will struggle to find a comparable player at the position in 2025. 

Green, meanwhile, was the No. 15 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. The 6-foot-4, 325-pound guard will likely wind up replacing Mekhi Becton, who could cash in during free agency after reviving his career with the Eagles in 2024. 

Green will carry just a $2.88 million cap hit in 2025, the final guaranteed season of his rookie deal. The Eagles will have to decide whether or not to pick up his fifth-year option, something that seems really unlikely given how his career has gone to this point. But Green could certainly turn his career around working with decorated offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.