On the day the NFL suspended former Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson for spitting on an opponent, Buffalo coach Joe Brady said the team would not be cutting Gardner-Johnson. After the game that Gardner-Johnson missed, the Bills cut him.
Meeting with reporters on Thursday, Brady explained the reversal.
“There was a lot to evaluate,” Brady said. “You know, we got together and figured out, ‘Hey, this is what we felt like this was the best thing to do for the Buffalo Bills.’ I have so much love for [C.J.]. Like, I really do. I loved getting to coach him. I loved being around him. I loved — I did love the edge, and his personality allowing him to be him, right?, and as a person. So that didn’t make the decision easy at all.
“But we also have to be an organization that, you know, it’s unfortunate obviously what happened, you know? But it also opened a door and an opportunity for guys the other day, and that was a part of evaluation. And seeing how those guys kind of played, and you know with a lot of the roster moves. And, again, this wasn’t — we didn’t come out of the game post Vegas and say, ‘This is what we were going to do. We’re just gonna do this the following Monday.’ We were, you know, the plan was him being here and we were going to evaluate it after the game in Baltimore. And we felt like with some of the moving parts we had to do it was the best interests of the football team.”
Gardner-Johnson’s suspension opened the door for Damar Hamlin to start the game against the Ravens. And Hamlin apparently did well enough to help the Bills realize that, all things considered, the “best interests” of the Bills meant the Bills were better off without the “high maintenance” Gardner-Johnson.