Unfortunately, injuries are always part of the game within the NFL and we see players go through them every single season. Whether it’s role players or stars, injuries affect every team at some point. There are times when some teams get it worse than others.
The Buffalo Bills are no strangers to injuries, and there have been times where the injury bug hit them sooner than later which made life difficult for them. There was a time back in 2024 during training camp that the Bills had multiple injuries to the point where they needed to bring in guys just to finish out training camp, like Kareem Jackson.
On the third day of training camp on Saturday, the Bills had an injury scare that had Bills fans extremely nervous for the worst-case scenario. Alaina Getzenberg from ESPN had reported that safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was “supported off the field” after suffering a lower body injury that was in the right foot area.
Bills were given major scare about C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Getzenberg then reported that Gardner-Johnson “was not putting much weight on his foot” and that is never a good sign. Typically, if a player can't put any pressure then you know that something is definitely serious.
The Bills would end up finishing the day, but all of the attention was on the status of Gardner-Johnson’s injury. He signed with the Bills on a one-year deal and many people expect him to be a starter along with Cole Bishop on the backend of the defense. However, signs were pointing to his season being over before it started.
Luckily, ESPN’s Adam Schefter confirmed that Gardner-Johnson’s injury was just a lower calf strain, rather than something big like a torn achilles injury.
Tests revealed that Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who was carted to the locker room during Saturday’s practice, suffered a lower calf strain, per source. pic.twitter.com/oJIwjdZFBS
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 1, 2026
Bills avoid massive long-term injury loss with C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Obviously, having any kind of injury with the calf is never great. But the Bills managed to avoid a huge loss that could have been on their hands. Even though Gardner-Johnson is now set up to miss a good amount of the summer, it’s better than the alternate which would have been the whole season, had it been something with his achilles.
Gardner-Johnson is the type of player that the Bills absolutely needed. He is not afraid to bring intensity, and quite frankly, he’s not afraid of trash-talking either which is what the Bills’ defense needs.
Even though Sean McDermott did have some successful defenses in his tenure with the Bills, there were times when it felt like there was no intensity from the defense and that they would play to not lose.
Having a player like Gardner-Johnson changes that mentality and he should play a big role in Jim Leonhard’s defense. From here on out, the main priority is to just keep Gardner-Johnson healthy and make sure that he’s ready for Week 1.
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