DJ Lagway, Dijon Johnson injury updates: Billy Napier reveals severity, timeline for Florida stars

The Florida Gators are looking to use their bye week to reset and get their season back on track. To do that, they’re going to need to get as healthy as possible. That’s a place where there have been some concerns for Florida.

The most notable of those concerns is quarterback DJ Lagway, who was seen in a walking boot. That comes after an offseason of injuries to the young quarterback. He’s not alone, though, as Florida defensive back Dijon Johnson appeared to suffer a major injury.

Florida head coach Billy Napier addressed those injuries on the weekly SEC Teleconference on Wednesday. There, he shared a relatively positive update on DJ Lagway, but a concerning one for Dijon Johnson.

“DJ is fine,” Billy Napier said. “He got stepped on during the game. We put a boot on him. No issue at all. He practiced yesterday. He’s 100 percent.

DJ Lagway has seen injury issues become a common concern in his young career. As a true freshman in 2024, he lost time being banged up. Then, over the offseason, he dealt with a shoulder issue in the spring before being seen in a walking boot around the time of Fall Camp. That would force him to miss practice time, but it hasn’t cost him any games to this point in 2025.

Billy Napier, unfortunately, had a much worse update on Dijon Johnson. He suffered a meniscus injury in the LSU game. Now, it’s been confirmed that he needed surgery on it and, with that, will be out for the foreseeable future.

“Yeah [Dijon] had career-ending surgery yesterday,” Napier said. “He had a knee injury in the game. It’s going to be fixable, nothing long-term there. But he will be out for the remainder of the season.”

Notably, Billy Napier initially said that Dijon Johnson is dealing with a career-ending injury before calling it something that will keep him out for the remainder of the season. For now, it’s unclear if he misspoke. Regardless, hopefully Johnson is able to get back on the field as quickly as possible. That injury is going to force Cormani McClain into a full-time starter role for the time being.

Pete Thamel: DJ Lagway has been ‘pedestrian’ at Florida

DJ Lagway came into 2025 with plenty of hype that he’s failed to live up to. Now, Pete Thamel has gone as far as to call him pedestrian.

“Boy, that offense has been so listless, it’s hard to imagine it, you know, all of a sudden getting resuscitated,” Thamel said. “And, DJ Lagway has been pedestrian. There’s no other way to say it – five picks [against LSU], and they didn’t move the ball much against a very good Miami defense now by the way. But they just, they just couldn’t anything going. But, if you have a quarterback of his caliber, you’re expected to move the ball.”

After the bye, Florida and Lagway do have a chance to make a statement. There, the Gators will host Texas, looking to pull off a major upset.