Five years ago on Twitter, DJ Reader shared a piece of wisdom that he reiterated last March when he signed a two-year, $22 million deal with the Lions: "Don’t let others paint the picture of what you see in the mirror." So nah, Reader said last week, there was nothing validating about the Lions picking up the second year of his contract when they could have cut him loose to save against the cap.
"Just the team winning was validating," he said. "Again, that quote is me through and through. I will never let y’all or anyone else tell me what I feel about myself. I’m probably my biggest critic when it comes to ball, and just being a man in its own. So I don’t fall into that category of reading or listening to what the outside noise is.
"I feel like I put my best foot forward last year, and going into the offseason I was just happy to be healthy. I was sad where we ended up. I wasn’t thinking about the contract, if it got picked up, if it didn’t. I was just like, whatever, I thought I put my best tape on film, felt like I had a good year."
Reader, indeed, did as the Lions hoped he would last season while helping the team finish first in the NFC at 15-2. He was a run-stuffing, space-eating nose tackle who played a bigger role on defense than his stats might have indicated.
The roof eventually caved in on the Lions amid an avalanche of injuries and a storm of mistakes by the offense in Detroit's playoff loss to the Commanders. The 30-year-old Reader was one of the team's few starters on defense who was healthy for most of the season.
A fifth-round pick back in 2016, Reader is entering year 10 of his career. He's powered playoff teams at each of his three stops, from Houston to Cincinnati to Detroit. He's played in the Super Bowl, where he and the Bengals fell just short against Matthew Stafford and the Rams. As Reader sees it, the only hole on his resume is a ring. Filling it his primary fuel.
"Nothing else really matters," he said. "I've had a really, really good career. I've been blessed and fortunate to play for a long time, played good ball, played in the Super Bowl, had a good game -- just haven't won it. So that's really all that matters to me. It's really just winning one, whatever way and whatever part of the team I can be, whatever I can do to this team to help it win, that's my main focus."
Reader is in a good place, mentally and physically. And any murmurs that the Lions might have released him this offseason were just that. While Reader's statistical production was down last season from the year prior -- though he did set a career high with three sacks -- he played the majority of his snaps as the nose, opposite the center, for the first time in his career. There are only so many splash plays to be made in the mud.
Framed alternatively, Reader logged the fewest snaps of his career since his rookie year (in a season in which he played at least 10 games) as a tackle in the B gap, where he has a little more room to operate.
And after spending last offseason rehabbing from surgery on a torn tendon in his right quad -- the same injury he suffered to his left quad in 2020 -- Reader said this "was probably my healthiest offseason in a minute, when I haven't gotten cut open or anything." That freedom excites him, "knowing that I can explore a couple of different things this year being healthy." He was already back in the building last week for an optional phase of the Lions' offseason training program, admitting with a grin that he had a workout bonus on the line -- and "I’m not in the interest of, like, giving money back."
"Two, we got a new D-coordinator, even though Shep was here last year, and a new D-line coach," Reader said, in reference to Kelvin Sheppard and Kacy Rodgers. "Honestly, I just think it’s important when you got new things and new people around for them to see your face, know who you are. If you want to just show up in OTA’s and the mandatory (periods), it’s kind of hard for that coach to get to know you. And then you’re trying to grow a relationship during camp, which is tough."
Reader was credited with 23 tackles (11 solo) in 15 games last season, plus 14 stops and 22 quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus. That was down from 34 tackles (20 solo) in 14 games the season prior, plus 26 stops and 34 pressures. Again, his deployment in Detroit's defense versus Cincinnati's accounts for most of this discrepancy. And with the Lions signing nose tackle Roy Lopez this offseason, there's a good chance Reader will get more snaps in the B gap against guards this year.
The Lions will need Reader from the start, along with first-round pick Tyleik Williams, as Alim McNeill works his way back from a torn ACL. That's a big piece missing from their defensive line. But they feel good about their depth on the interior, including versatile returners like Levi Onwuzurike and Josh Paschal. Continuity builds comfort. As Reader put it, "You see guys that are familiar with the system, so you're not really second guessing if they know it, if they don't."
"You don't have that kind of nervousness," he said. "You know what's going on."
Last year was Reader's sixth in the NFL winning a division title, and falling short of the goal. It was the second such year in a row for the Lions. Every season in this league is earned, every snap, every play, every win. "The work is proven" in Detroit, said Reader. The standard has been set.
"So we know that if we put it in, if we trust our coaches, if we do what we're supposed to do, then we're going to be where we want to be," he said.
From there, it's a matter of doing the last thing he wants to do.