As the offseason goes on and I continue to reflect on the Eagles 2022 season, I can’t help but think of Chauncey Gardner Johnson. This season, Gardner Johnson joined a team just weeks before his debut, playing a new position and he still thrived at a level high enough for most Eagles fans to be begging for this man to come back. I don’t know if there is a way to understate how impressive that is.
With the amazing feat of Gardner Johnson’s season comes more than just eagles analysis from me but argument from the scope of the entire NFL. When I look-up best safeties in the NFL and see Minkah Fitzpatrick, Derwin James, and Justin Simmons, I can’t help but think that CJGJ belongs in that category. Furthermore, when I begin to think about relative value as a player, the more I begin to think CGJG belongs in his own category. So today, I’m putting my case forward– Chauncey Gardner Johson is the most Valuable safety in the NFL.
To me, CJGJ has 4 qualities that separate him from the rest of the Safeties in the NFL. He’s versatile, he’s young, he makes impact plays, and he’s a leader.
In terms of versatility, CJGJ can play multiple positions at a very high level. This year he proved he could play in a traditional deep safety role and in years prior he proved that he was a great slot corner in the NFL. In addition to these positions, he can also match up on tight ends one-on-one. When necessary, he can also play in the box where he provides additional value in his capability of fitting the run and blitzing.
CJGJ also prevents big plays and creates turnovers, which are the two most valuable things a defensive player can do. Time and time again, this Eagles organization has advocated that the two most important stats in football are big plays and turnovers. Gardner-Johnson, in his first season with the Eagles, showed that he was capable of having a big effect on these two measures. Despite missing six total regular season games, Gardner-Johnson still led the league in interceptions. His ability to be a ball-hawk from the safety position and force turnovers was evident whenever he was on the field. And when Gardner-Johnson was off of the field, the Eagles defense looked increasingly more vulnerable in allowing big passing plays over the top via coverage breakdowns.
Another thing that makes Gardner-Johnson more valuable than his contemporaries is that he’s only 25 years old. While much of the league’s most critically acclaimed safeties get older and thus worse, he’s just entering his prime. In addition to his young age, is also his youthful experience at the safety position to begin with. From the first four weeks of the regular season to the end of the 2022 season, his improvement was astonishing. He went from a player who looked to have a few growing pains in the first quarter of the season to an exceptional player at his position. If he improved this much in only one season of time, the sky’s the limit for CGJG at safety.
But there are admittedly a few aspects to Gardner-Johnson’s game that have many lower on him than the Eagles general fanbase. For one, PFF’s player grading system gave him a 65.2 overall grade for the 2022 season. Being that PFF is the best and most popular player grading system, many are hesitant to consider him in the top safety conversation. But what they fail to realize is that PFF grades for secondary players are very noisy and have a ton of variance from year to year. It’s also worth noting that his grade factors in the first four games where he averaged a 49.4 PFF grade. And while that’s a low average grade for four weeks, it’s clear from anyone who watched the Eagles this season that the low grades were due to growing pains because he had never played safety before. Once he got acclimated to the position, the issues with his game that showed up in the first four weeks disappeared.
CJGJ, a player who was traded for a fifth round pick, still on a rookie contract, and receiving an average PFF grade is still the most valuable safety in the NFL to me. I know that sounds ridiculous, but he’s worthy of the conversation at the very least. He’s elite at multiple positions, he’s young, and he’s only improving. What are your guy’s thoughts? Am I overrating him or is the public underrating him? Let me know.