The Detroit Lions didn’t go out and grab one of the tippy top defensive lineman out there, but they still made a huge splash when they signed one of the best nose tackles in the league in former Bengal DJ Reader.
Reader is going to make a big difference in Detroit, but don’t take my word for it. The Athletic recently interviewed NFL executives about free agency moves across the league and one executive explained how Reader could change the Lions entire defensive identity and he did it by explaining what happened to the Bengals defense when Reader wasn’t in it.
“Their whole identity changed defensively when D.J. Reader was hurt, which is why I think losing him was big,” one exec said. “What Reader was able to do might not have been on the stat sheet, but he allowed those linebackers to play free.
That’s really the big thing right there. Reader is a tremendous run stopper, but where he helps the Lions the most is being a space eater. Reader is the kind of guy that’s going to command double teams and he can take them. When he does that, it sets off a chain reaction through the rest of the defense.
The edge rushers have few guys to get around, McNeill can sneak through as well. If you’re not getting sacks, you’re getting pressure and pressure takes time. That gives the linebackers enough time to be in their spot or try to rush themselves and it gives the secondary time to blanket receivers.
It seems simple enough, but the Lions just haven’t had that. They went through a bunch of guys trying to find it and it just didn’t pan out. The closest they got was with Tyson Alualu and you could see a little bit of what the team was able to do with him eating some space last year. Suddenly sacks went up and the secondary wasn’t getting burnt as much.
The only concern that executives have is the injury, and they’re not too concerned about it.
“Reader is a big, big win for them,” an exec said. “The quad injury is the only piece you worry about, but he has proven he can come back from that injury.”
Reader suffered a similar injury in 2020 and then came out and had the best season of his entire career in 2021. He helped lead the Bengals to the Super Bowl that year too. Can he do that for the Lions? We’ll see soon enough.