According to ESPN, CJ Gardner-Johnson injured his leg during practice on Thursday.
The injury occurred when he tried to tackle wide receiver John Metchie. After making contact, Gardner-Johnson fell to the ground and was unable to move his lower right leg. He was in obvious pain as the entire practice fell silent. Players and coaches surrounded Gardner-Johnson, and the medical staff helped him get on the cart. Gardner-Johnson was unable to put any pressure on his right leg.
No one knows how badly injured he is but from early reports, it doesn’t sound good. Speculation is that he may have a torn Achilles.
Gardner-Johnson came over from the Philadelphia Eagles and was expected to contribute to the Texans' secondary.
“It’s heartbreaking when you see a guy go down on the field like that and doesn't get up quickly. I'm always nervous as a head coach any time I see somebody hit the ground. It's tough to watch. We’ll see, we'll evaluate where he is, but no update at this time,” said head coach DeMeco Ryans.
The field went silent as they carried Johnson-Gardner off the field.
"It's heartfelt because we're a team," Ryans added. "We're all in this together, and you see the emotion from our team. I've been on teams where you just, 'Hey, coaches, just move the ball up, and keep practicing.' I think that's very insensitive. So, we're going to take the time there, guys take a knee, pray for him, just make sure they send their teammate off well."
Ryans concluded, "That's what it's about. It's about that moment, for me, to make sure we care for each other. It's not just some slogans that we throw up or just toss around. Like, we truly care about each other. So that's why you see, if something like that happens in practice, we're going to take our time, then we have to hit reset– it's a tough message– but we have to hit reset, and then we have to get back going."