The Houston Texans got awful news on Thursday night when it was reported that safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson would miss the 2025 season with a torn ACL. They got slightly better news not long after when sources reported that the ACL wasn't torn and that Gardner-Johnson should be back at some point.
It's great for the Texans and for Gardner-Johnson that his ACL isn't torn. The former Eagles safety was viewed as the missing piece to turn this Texans secondary into potentially the best defensive secondary in the league. Without him, things will get a good bit tougher.
Let's take a look at three Texans players who are about to have to step up big time with Gardner-Johnson sidelined.
Jalen Pitre
It looked like the Texans were set on having Jalen Pitre in the slot full-time despite the fact he was drafted to be a safety, but the Gardner-Johnson injury potentially changes the math here, especially when you factor in that the easiest plug-and-play option behind Gardner-Johnson would be Jimmie Ward, who is currently embroiled in legal issues and simply doesn't feel like someone the Texans can rely on in 2025.
Whether Pitre heads to the starting safety role or not, he'll be asked to step up more with Gardner-Johnson on the sidelines. The fourth-year player has been in the starting lineup for all 44 games of his NFL career, so he's used to being out on the field and should be game for taking on whatever role he needs to take on, though he projects much better as a strong safety than a free safety, the spot that needs replaced with Gardner-Johnson out.
Jaylen Reed
The Texans don't have to move Pitre back to safety. They could keep him in the slot to avoid causing depth issues at corner and see if Jaylen Reed can step up, though that might be a tough ask.
Reed was a sixth-round pick for the Texans this year out of Penn State. He's a fairly physical safety, someone who is at his best closer to the line of scrimmage, so again, maybe not the best Gardner-Johnson replacement, since playing in space would likely be his NFL weak point. But the team could also slide some things around, letting Calen Bullock roam a bit more and using Reed as a kind of platoon player between strong safety and the slot alongside Pitre.
The Gardner-Johnson injury is going to force the Texans to be creative. They don't really have a perfect replacement option for him, so unless they hit the free agent market and sign someone like Justin Simmons, the team is going to have to move players around and see what sticks.
Jaylin Smith
The Texans have what is quite possibly the best young one-two punch at corner in the league in Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter, but things fall off in a hurry beyond that, especially if Pitre is forced to move back to safety.
The team addressed its corner issues during the NFL Draft, using a third-round pick on USC's Jaylin Smith. At the time, I wondered if it might have been a strange use of resources, ultimately grading the pick a "C" because it didn't seem like the Texans needed to use a top 100 pick on the position.
But the Gardner-Johnson injury shows why I was wrong. If everyone were healthy, then sure, Smith would play sparingly as a reserve, and it would seem like the team wasted a third-rounder. With Gardner-Johnson out, the team will have to find ways to get Smith out on the field.
Smith is a bit undersized, but he has the speed and physicality to work in the slot. If the Texans move Pitre back to safety to cover for the loss of Gardner-Johnson, being able to slide Smith in as the slot corner is a huge win for this defense.