Patriots’ Kevin Byard Responds to Former Teammate C.J. Gardner-Johnson After Efton Chism III Comments image
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Patriots receiver Efton Chism III has been the talk of the town following his "Catch of the Year" candidate in New England’s Week 4 win against the Bills. He continues to be talked about thanks to C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
The Bills safety wasn’t impressed with Chism’s one-handed catch that secured the win for the Patriots. An emotional Gardner-Johnson believes he’ll be a non-factor even after this game.
"We’re not getting into no bulletin board material," Gardner-Johnson said after the game. "An elevated guy made a helluva catch. Probably won’t hear from him again, respectfully… A practice squad player made a helluva play. You do it again, he probably won’t make it again. Simple."
Chism has never been on the practice squad. He signed with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2025. Gardner-Johnson has been on a practice squad with the Ravens.
Patriots coach Mike Vrabel addressed Gardner-Johnson's comments on "The Greg Hill Show," stating, "For a guy that's been on eight teams in four years, I guess he knows the drill."
More Patriots were asked about his comments. Kevin Byard, a former teammate of Gardner-Johnson’s with the Bears, spoke on "Rich and Ken" on WEEI and stated he wasn’t surprised.
Byard also believed if he were still his teammate, he would make sure Gardner-Johnson wouldn’t make those comments.
"I would just honestly tell him, like, 'Bro, don’t put no more fuel to the fire — because at the end of the day, we lost.' When I think about past games, for example, the Seattle Seahawks game — we didn’t finish," Byard said via Boston.com. "You know what I mean? Like, we were up in that game, and we ended up losing. Regardless of how we lost? We lost. So [there’s] no point in saying like, 'Oh, the better team didn’t win or this and that.'"
"No, you give them credit. We didn’t do good enough, and we gotta get back to work. Because at the end of the day, now you’re putting a bigger target on yourself, you put a bigger target on your teammates, and now some other people in the locker room are answering questions based on comments that you made. … You don’t want to be that guy [who’s] gonna do that."
Gardner-Johnson was drafted in 2019. Byard was drafted in 2016. They played together on the Bears last season. It was Byard’s third team before joining the Patriots, while it was Gardner-Johnson's seventh before joining the Bills.
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