Texans get encouraging — and surprising — news on star defender

Houston Texans safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Texans get encouraging — and surprising — news regarding star defender injury

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Aug 8, 2025 7:13 PM ET

The Houston Texans went on a bit of an injury roller-coaster ride on Thursday night regarding the status of new defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Following a report that he may have suffered a season-ending torn ACL injury, it was quickly revealed that his ACL was not torn and that he was undergoing further testing.

On Friday evening, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Gardner-Johnson's injury is not only not as bad as originally feared, but it is possible that he could be back in the lineup as soon as the team's season-opener against the Los Angeles Rams.

Further testing revealed that Texans safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s knee injury isn’t as serious as it could have been, and it’s not out of the question that he could be back as soon as the regular-season opener vs. the Rams.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 8, 2025

This is highly encouraging — and surprising — news for the Texans, because sometimes those knee injuries that look bad and sound bad typically end up having a bad result.

The best-case scenario would be no injury at all, and while that is obviously not the case here, this is probably the next-best result for Gardner-Johnson and the Texans.

Houston acquired him from the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles in a trade this offseason to help build what might be one of the NFL's best secondaries.

Houston already has a dominant outside cornerback duo with Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter, and now it has a top safety in Gardner-Johnson joining that mix.

Even before adding Gardner-Johnson, the Texans were second in the NFL in interceptions during the 2024 season, picking off 19 passes. They trailed only the Minnesota Vikings, who had 24 picks.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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