29-Year-Old Defensive Tackle Signs with the Lions

29-year-old defensive tackle D.J. Reader has played with both the Houston Texans and the Cincinnati Bengals since coming into the league in 2016. After the Bengals had a severely disappointing 2023 season, where there were expectations at the beginning of the season to make it out of the AFC, Reader became a free agent. Today, it was just announced that D.J. signed a two-year 27-and-a-half-million-dollar deal with the Detroit Lions. 9 million is guaranteed for Reader. During the second half of his career, Reader will look to possibly make his first Pro Bowl appearance, as well as make another Super Bowl appearance, with the chance to win it all. 

D.J. played both football and baseball at Clemson University. Reader was a pitcher for the Tigers in the 2013 season, before fully making the transition to football. The defensive tackle would declare for the NFL Draft in 2016 and was selected in the fifth round as the 166th overall pick by the Texans. By his sophomore season, he replaced the aging Vince Wilfork as the starting nose tackle, and a year later in 2018, he recorded his first multi-sack game against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. During the 2020 season, the 29-year-old defensive tackle signed a four-year deal with the Bengals. He went off during the 2021 season and helped Cincinnati make its first Super Bowl appearance since 1988. He recorded a sack in the Super Bowl LVI 23-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. 

Last season, Reader played in 14 games with the Bengals. The 29-year-old defensive tackle had 34 combined tackles, 20 of those being solo tackles, and 14 assisted tackles. He also had two tackles for loss of yardage, a sack, and a pass deflection. His best game of the 2023 season was on December 4th against the Jacksonville Jaguars. In a 34-31 win, D.J. had six combined tackles, one solo, and five assisted tackles.