Safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson is on the move again.
The Ravens are releasing Gardner-Johnson from their practice squad, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
As noted by Schefter, agent Kevin Conner and Baltimore came to a mutual agreement to move forward separately after the Ravens traded for safety Alohi Gilman.
“After the Ravens traded for a safety, we were looking for a clearer path to play,” Conner said, via Schefter.
Gardner-Johnson started the first three games of the season for Houston before he was released. He subsequently signed with the Ravens, a team that needed safety help at the time.
Now, he’s once again in search of a new team.
A fourth-round pick in 2019, Gardner-Johnson has recorded 51 passes defensed and 18 interceptions in 77 career games. He won Super Bowl LIX last year with the Eagles.
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud had his best game of the season so far against the Ravens last Sunday and now he’s been rewarded for it.
Stroud has been named AFC offensive player of the week after his performance in Houston’s 44-10 victory.
Stroud completed 23-of-27 passes for 244 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He also had one 30-yard rush.
Stroud became the first player in 2025 to record four touchdown passes in a game with four or fewer incompletions.
This is Stroud’s third career player of the week award. It’s the first time he’s won it since 2023.
The injury-plagued Ravens are adding a veteran.
According to multiple reports, safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson has agreed to sign with Baltimore’s practice squad.
Gardner-Johnson was most recently with the Texans, who released him late last month. He started the first three games with the club, recording 15 total tackles with a QB hit.
Gardner-Johnson helped Philadelphia win Super Bowl LIX last season, when he started 16 games and recorded six interceptions, 12 passes defensed, and a forced fumble.
With injuries all around the team’s defense and a unit that has played remarkably poorly in 2025, it seems likely Gardner-Johnson will be called upon sooner than later.
Texans running back Joe Mixon remains out with a foot injury and answers to questions about when and if he will return this season remain out of reach.
Mixon was placed on the non-football injury list to open camp and there have not been many updates about either the nature of the injury or a plan for Mixon to get back on the field. General Manager Nick Caserio didn’t change that at a Tuesday press conference, but he did say that he expects to have a handle on where things will go in the near future.
“In a few weeks, we’ll probably have a better idea,” Caserio said. “He’s making progress. I wouldn’t put a particular timetable on it. . . . Once we kinda get to that period, probably have a better sense of which way it’s gonna go for the duration of the year.”
The Texans rank 16th in the league in rushing yards with Nick Chubb and Woody Marks leading the way in the backfield.
The NFL has a history of winning in court. Lately, it hasn’t been.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied a request by the league for an “en banc” (full court) review of the August 2025 decision from a three-judge panel denying the NFL’s effort to push pending legal claims filed by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores against the NFL, the Giants, the Broncos, and the Texans to arbitration.
Last week, the Nevada Supreme Court denied the NFL’s request for rehearing of the full-court decision to allow former Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell to proceed in court, not arbitration.
In September 2025, Flores filed a separate motion with the federal trial court handling the case for reconsideration of the original order sending Flores’s claims against the Dolphins to arbitration. Flores focused on the portion August 2025 appellate decision invalidating the Commissioner’s ultimate control over arbitration claims filed against the NFL. It also argued that the arbitration process has been at a “complete standstill” since November 2024.
The September 2025 motion includes the claims of Steve Wilks against the Cardinals and Ray Horton against the Titans.
The Flores case was filed in February 2022, with Wilks and Horton later joining the litigation. The lawsuit has still not moved to the merits of the dispute, more than three-and-a-half years later.
Flores currently serves as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator, and Wilks was hired earlier this year to be the Jets’ defensive coordinator.
