C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s night turned sideways in a hurry for the Buffalo Bills, and the bigger fallout may still be coming.
The Bills safety was thrown out late in the first half of Buffalo’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders and will not be available to return. According to reports, Gardner-Johnson appeared to spit on Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, prompting the ejection for unsportsmanlike conduct.
CBS Sports posted the news on Facebook as it happened, writing, "C.J. Gardner-Johnson has been ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct," alongside a screenshot of a referee on the field.
The ejection could end up being only part of the damage. The NFL hands down weekly fines for violations from previous games, and unsportsmanlike conduct is one of the most common ones. Gardner-Johnson could be facing a sizable fine when those penalties are issued.
There’s also a chance the league goes further. Charean Williams of NBC Sports reported that, "Gardner-Johnson began jawing with Tyler Linderbaum and Brock Bowers before spitting in their direction. Officials ejected Gardner-Johnson with 14 seconds left in the half."
Williams also wrote that the NFL "could suspend Gardner-Johnson for next week's game, too."
For Buffalo, the timing couldn’t have been worse. The Bills had to finish the first half and head into the second without one of their key defenders, and the sequence helped swing momentum for Las Vegas. Gardner-Johnson’s actions led to a 14-yard penalty, and that set up Matt Gay’s 27-yard field goal to tie the game at 13-13 going into halftime.
In Other News...
Josh Allen Keeps Saving The Bills As One Concern Lingers
The Bills have spent much of the 2026 season living on the edge, and Josh Allen has been the reason they keep walking away with wins. Buffalo has stacked up close games, most of them decided by a single score, while Allen and James Cook III have provided enough offense to keep the team from wasting strong stretches on the other side of the ball.
Cook has been a big part of that formula, and the defense has shown real progress under coordinator Jim Leonhard, with Christian Benford emerging as one of the more dependable pieces in the secondary. Even so, Buffalo still looks like a team searching for complete trust on that side of the ball, and the latest spotlight on Benford only adds to the sense that the Bills are improving without quite being finished. [Read more 🡒]
Bills Are 5-1 But One Familiar Problem Still Looks Dangerous
The Bills left Las Vegas with a win and a 5-1 record, enough to keep them on top of the AFC East as they head into their bye week. Josh Allen once again supplied the kind of playmaking that can carry this team through stretches when things get messy, but the broader picture from Sunday was less tidy. Buffalos penalty issues continued to show up, and the defense spent too much time fighting off third-down stress against a Raiders offense that found ways to stay on the field.
Buffalo has earned a little breathing room before Week 8 brings Baltimore to town, and that pause arrives at a useful moment. The Bills are winning, but they are also carrying a familiar problem that can get exposed quickly against sharper opponents. If the penalties keep piling up and the third-down defense remains shaky, the record will not hide it for long. [Read more 🡒]
Bills Bye Week Just Took An Ugly Turn With C.J. Gardner-Johnson
The Bills bye week opened with an unwanted sideshow after C.J. Gardner-Johnson was tossed from the game against the Raiders, a jarring moment that quickly shifted attention away from the field. Josh Allen said the team may let its captains talk through the situation, and Joe Brady also addressed the incident as Buffalo tries to put some order around a messy interruption to a game that had already taken on an edge.
What makes the episode harder to dismiss is that it did not appear out of nowhere. Gardner-Johnson was already under a brighter spotlight after Kyle Juszczyk said the defensive back spit on him in a previous game, and now the Bills are left weighing what comes next during the break. For a team trying to use the bye week to reset, the question is no longer just what happened Sunday, but how Buffalo wants to handle a player whose recent headlines keep following him. [Read more 🡒]