Training camp injuries always hit different when the guy going down is a starter you can't afford to lose, and that's exactly the scare Buffalo had on its hands this weekend. C.J. Gardner-Johnson went down with what looked like a lower leg injury during Saturday's practice, and the sight of him getting carted to the locker room is never a good sign in August.
The clip captured the moment Gardner-Johnson went down with the apparent lower leg injury.
Adam Schefter was first to confirm the worst-case optics were real: Gardner-Johnson was carted off, full stop. No spin, no immediate word on severity, just the fact that a key piece of Buffalo's secondary needed a ride off the practice field.
That's about as tense as camp news gets, especially for a guy who signed with the Bills back in March on a one-year deal worth up to $6 million, per Spotrac, built to bring a proven ballhawk into a defense that could use the takeaways. Gardner-Johnson has made a career out of being a disruptor in the secondary, and losing him for any stretch changes how that room is built heading into the season.
Gardner-Johnson appeared in good spirits hours after being carted off, easing some of the immediate panic.
The vibe check helped, but vibes aren't a diagnosis. That came later Saturday night when Schefter reported tests revealed the safety suffered a lower calf strain — a real injury, but a far cry from the ACL or Achilles nightmares that cross everyone's mind the second a player gets carted off.
A calf strain is still a calf strain, though, and those have a nasty habit of lingering or recurring if a player comes back too soon. Buffalo's got the luxury of time with camp still rolling and the regular season a ways off, so the real story now is how quickly Gardner-Johnson can get back on the field without setting himself up for a re-aggravation once the games start counting.