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Philadelphia Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson did not hold back on his thoughts on New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Khristian Boyd over the latter's action on the field on Sunday that resulted in a head injury for Philly wide receiver DeVonta Smith.
Smith was on the receiving end of a vicious hit from Boyd in the fourth quarter. The former Alabama Crimson Tide star wideout had his helmet popping off following the hit. He stayed on the ground for some time before he was able to get off the field.
“Man, that's the dirtiest s— I ever saw in football, bro,” Gardner-Johnson said after the Eagles defeated New Orleans, per Tim McManus of ESPN.
“Y'all obviously saw forward progression was stopped. For them to take a cheap shot on one of our key players, it goes to show what type of team that is. They're front-runners.”
It can be remembered that Gardner-Johnson played his first three seasons in the NFL donning the Saints uniform. In the summer of 2022, the Saints sent him to the Eagles via a trade along with a 2025 seventh-round pick and a 2024 sixth-rounder. Interestingly enough, that sixth-round pick turned out to be Boyd, who was taken by the Saints as the 199th overall selection in this year's NFL draft.
Gardner-Johnson also added some spice to the flavor of Sunday's game when he called his former team “pretenders” and belittled New Orleans quarterback Derek Carr ahead of the meeting.
The score was just 3-0 in favor of the Saints at the start of the fourth quarter, where both teams' offenses started to buzz. Saquon Barkley scored a 65-yard rushing touchdown with 13 minutes left in the game to put Philadelphia ahead. The Saints scored the next nine points to grab the lead back before Barkley scored another touchdown on the ground on a four-yard run to put the Eagles ahead for good with a little over a minute left in regulation.
Concern growing for Eagles WR room
The Eagles played the Saints without wide receiver A. J. Brown, who is still seemingly dealing with a hamstring injury. If Smith would need to miss a game (or games) to recover from his concussion and if Brown's injury ended up keeping him sidelined beyond Week 3, that scenario would be far from ideal for the Eagles, to say the least.
Hamstring and concussion injuries are notorious for being tricky to assign recovery timelines with, so it will be quite a week ahead for Philadelphia, as the team hopes both their top two receivers will be able to play in Week 4. Up next for the Eagles, who improved to 2-1, is another road game versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this coming Sunday.
