New Lions defensive tackle D.J. Reader isn’t ready to roll just yet, but he is well on his way. Reader tore his quadriceps in his right leg in Week 15, on December 16th, and is still on the recovery trail.
It’s the second time Reader, who was with the Bengals at the time, has torn a quad. The first one came in 2020, his first year in Cincinnati. The 335-pound tackle knows the rehab process and he feels like he’s way ahead of where he was four years ago.
In an interview with the Dayton Daily News in January, Reader was already talking about how much better he was doing the second time around. From his feature with Laurel Pfahler of the Daily News,
Reader was encouraged by the surgery and has found the injury to be less severe than the one he experienced in 2020 with his left leg. As he described it, the tendon “laid down a little bit more, kind of staged, didn’t retract as much,” and this time coming out of surgery, he could already contract the muscle, which wasn’t the case last time.
Three weeks out from the procedure, Reader said “it feels a lot better in the early stages.” Last time he said it took six months for him to return but was running in about four months and felt “amazing” at about nine months after surgery.
Reader signed with the Lions after meeting with the team’s medical staff. The two-year deal is a commitment that the team believes in Reader’s progress and ability to stay on the field. He followed up that 2020 injury with arguably the best season of his eight-year career.
Or as he told Pfahler in January,
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be just fine. It’s not something I would worry about, whether DJ’s going to come back. I’ll be better than ever, be back doing what I do.”
He’ll be doing his thing–stuffing the run and helping create sack opportunities for his linemate–in Detroit now.