CJ Gardner calls out the ‘dirtiest’ play he has ever seen as Eagles beat Saints

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The New Orleans Saints went almost unnoticed during the offseason and are now proving to be a competitive team – at least so far.

It has had a few bad years, without expression and with no prospect of improvement in the future.

But what we’ve seen in the last three weeks is a squad with a thirst to win, a solid defense and possibly one of the best offenses in the NFL.

New Orleans‘ first two games were against the Carolina Panthers and the Dallas Cowboys – and they were thrashed by Derek Carr and co.

The Saints’ unbeaten run came to an end in Week 3 against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles were resilient and claimed victory at the packed Caesars Superdome by the score of 15-12.

Barbs after defeat

The Philadelphia team’s fine victory prompted some negative criticism from CJ Gardner-Johnson, formerly of the Saints.

He played for NOLA for three seasons before being traded to the Eagles in 2022.

And apparently Gardner-Johnson still harbours a lot of resentment towards his former team.

After putting on a defensive show in the match against the Saints, the player spared no criticism of his opponent.

According to NFL Network’s Bridget Concon, the Eagles safety was seen shouting in the locker room while celebrating the victory.

“They ain’t no contenders, they’re pretenders. They have Derek Carr. Remember that,” said.

“Top what? Top what? Ain’t nothing get over that top. Shoutout to (Darius) Slay, shoutout to (Quinyon Mitchell), shoutout to Avonte (Maddox). Shoutout to Reed (Blankenship), shoutout to (Kelee) Ringo, shoutout coach (Christian Parker), shoutout coach (Joe Kasper). Best secondary in the league, that’s the case.”

The Saints came into their Week 3 match against the Eagles as one of the most interesting teams this early in the season. New Orleans had scored 91 points in the franchise’s first two games in 2024 and had two convincing wins.

Philadelphia’s defense, however, presented enormous difficulties for the New Orleans offense, who were limited to 219 total yards in the game and suffered their first defeat of the year.

On the other hand, the Eagles are also far from the standard of performance that took them to the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022.

Once again without wide receiver A.J. Brown, the Eagles struggled on offense, but relied on the talents of Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley to claim their second win and take the lead in the NFC East Division.

CJ Gardner-Johnson hits out at the Saints

As if it wasn’t enough for the Eagles to overcome NOLA in a commendable comeback, CJ Gardner-Johnson’s joy seemed to be merely in having destroyed his former club.

Also, DeVonta Smith had to leave the game due to concussion. As Saints defenders pulled Smith back, defensive tackle Khristian Boyd hit Smith’s blind side and knocked him to the ground. He was down for several minutes after the play ended.

What’s more, the safety ended up absorbing what happened to his team-mate as his own.

“Man, that’s the dirtiest s___ I ever saw in football, bro. Y’all obviously saw that forward progression was stopped. And for them to take a cheap shot on one of our key guys, it shows what kind of team that is. They’re front-runners.”

He ended his ‘venting’ with a strong phrase: “They (the Saints) got rid of me. I (didn’t) get rid of them.”