A storm is brewing between the Cowboys and the Eagles, which is not their upcoming game. Tensions rose quickly as the air grew thick when Micah Parsons openly criticized C.J. Gardner-Johnson. And now, the Bird army has teamed up to defend their player in defense!

On Thursday, LeSean McCoy shared on Draft Kings how upset he was when C.J. Gardner-Johnson left the Eagle. Shady feels that Johnson is the perfect Philadelphia player in defense. He says, “We haven’t had nobody like him since Brian Dawkins.” The RB pointed out that no player is ever at 100%, and it’s impossible to make every tackle or cover every play perfectly. Well, he got a point. And that’s not all!

McCoy couldn’t stop singing C.J.’s praises and expressed, “With that dog in the attitude, he is the heartbeat of the defense, dog.” As if that wasn’t enough, Shady also stood up for the safety and defended his short-yardage joint against Atlanta. But what’s the big deal with Gardner? Well, the Eagles player started making waves soon after Micah Parson criticized him. But what did he say?

The gloves came off when Johnson labeled the Saints as “pretenders” during a post-game interview. Ouch, that’s personal! Well, this prompted Parsons to express his discontent with the safety’s comments. The LB mentioned on his podcast “The Edge with Micah Parsons,” that he doesn’t understand why C.J. thinks so highly of himself. He said, “I don’t know who CJ Gardner think he is, bro.” And, this statement was enough to start a war!

C.J. Gardner-Johnson fires back at Micah Parsons

When Parsons harshly criticized C.J. Gardner-Johnson, how could the Eagles player keep mum? He took to his X account to call out the star LB. The safety emphasized his experience in playoff wins compared to Micah.

C.J. pointed out that fans know him and said, “Fam the league knows who I am. You can check my track record and how I overcame a lot! Won a lot more playoff games than you too, my guy.” Ah, a personal attack! Well, Gardner ate and left no crumbs. However, the trash talk has just started. And while the verbal battle is on, here is what teammates and HCs think about Gardner-Johnson!

Phillies safety Reed Blankenship mentioned how Johnson is always high on energy saying, “Seeing how he was acting and reacting to everything, he had that chip on his shoulder.” Even Nick Srianni is super proud of his defense and took a moment to praise the men behind it.

The HC stated, “It comes in physical toughness which can be seen on the field through the way we tackle and defeat blocks. Both at the linebacker level and at the safety level and at the defensive line level.” It’s clear the Eagles squad has full confidence in their defensive abilities and they’re ready to back it up. For a coach to have that level of trust in the defense, it’s like scoring a touchdown of its own!

While the Iggles and the Boys will meet on gridiron in November, the war of words has already started. And with the players playing this verbal game, let’s see how it shapes the actual face-off! In this fight of defense with the safety and linebacker standing in front of each other, it will be fun to see whether they would be able to defend big plays!