A good night for @GatorsFB 🐊@CGJXXIII x @alldayMAYE pic.twitter.com/05OSB2wBca
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) August 25, 2019
Much like they’ve done with Ohio State alumni in the past, the New Orleans Saints have double-dipped into the Florida Gators program and reunited college teammates C.J. Gardner-Johnson and newly-acquired safety Marcus Maye. They were only together for one year, in 2016, when Gardner-Johnson was a freshman and Maye was a senior. They also grew up playing high school football 30 minutes from each other. It’s fair to say they have crossed paths plenty throughout the years.
In a 2016 interview with the Orlando Sentinel’s Jordan McPherson, Maye said of Gardner-Johnson and fellow freshman McArthur Bennett, “They’re very aggressive. You can tell they’re freshmen, but you know when the ball’s in the air, they play just like anyone else. They’re gamers.” Not much seems to have changed about Gardner-Johnson’s play since then, except for the quality of it.
The Florida head coach at the time, Jim McElwain, also spoke about the the two players’ relationship prior to the start of the season. “Chauncey had a really good spring. What was great about that more than anything was to see Marcus Maye take him under his wing, a guy from this area as well, to see him take ownership and help him see how we go about our business.”
The Saints defense hopes to replicate the success the 2016 Gators secondary brought as one of the best in the SEC. They allowed an opposing completion percentage of 45.1% and only gave up 148.5 yards per game through the air. Marcus Maye was named to the All-SEC team that season.
The two swapped signed jerseys, with messages written to each other after the Saints visited the New York Jets in the 2019 preseason. To no surprise, most of the messages had to do with them being from the 321 area code. Now they’re about to take the field together again.
