{"id":82297,"date":"2020-03-17T23:29:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T03:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=82297"},"modified":"2020-03-17T23:29:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T03:29:09","slug":"d-j-reader-agrees-to-deal-cincinnati-bengals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/03\/17\/d-j-reader-agrees-to-deal-cincinnati-bengals\/","title":{"rendered":"D.J. Reader Agrees to Deal With Cincinnati Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Entering his fifth season in the NFL, nose tackle <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/ReadD.00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D.J. Reader<\/a><\/strong>, formerly of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/texans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Houston Texans<\/a>, has agreed to a deal with the Cincinnati Bengals. Reader was drafted by the Texans in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Texans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Texans<\/a> defensive tackle DJ Reader is expected to land with the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bengals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Bengals<\/a> on a 4-year, $53M deal, source said. Cincy is in the free agent mix.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/1240014796948484097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 17, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>D.J. Reader, Cincinnati Bengals, Agree to Deal<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>At 6\u20193\u201d and 347 pounds, Texans head coach and general manager Bill O\u2019Brien had expressed Reader\u2019s value to the team, <a href=\"https:\/\/texanswire.usatoday.com\/2020\/02\/17\/texans-plan-d-j-reader\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stating that<\/a> they were going to sit down, and \u201cTry to do what\u2019s best for both sides.\u201d In 2019, the final year of his rookie contract, Reader made $2 million. He was very close to being selected for the Pro Bowl this year. <a href=\"https:\/\/profootballtalk.nbcsports.com\/2020\/03\/07\/report-texans-unlikely-to-re-sign-d-j-reader\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Recent reports stated<\/a> that it was unlikely that Reader would be returning to Houston, but that there was interest in the defensive end from three other AFC teams: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/broncos\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Denver Broncos<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/titans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tennessee Titans<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buffalo Bills<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Originally hailing from Grimsley, North Carolina, Reader attended college at Clemson, and finished his collegiate career as part of one of the team\u2019s most lauded seasons in history. With a 14-1 overall record, the Tigers entered the playoffs as the tournament\u2019s top seed, only losing to Alabama in the National Championship game.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, Reader started seven games as a Texans rookie. He replaced <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WilfVi20.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vince Wilfork<\/a><\/strong> as the team\u2019s starting nose tackle the following season, and started the first 14 games of the season until being placed on injured reserve with a sprained knee.<\/p>\n<p>The first major highlight of Reader\u2019s short career came in the 2018 season opener, in which he recorded his first multi-sack game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/patriots\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New England Patriots<\/a>, taking down <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BradTo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Brady<\/a><\/strong> twice. 2019 brought his biggest year yet, with improvements in all of his statistics. He recorded 2.5 sacks, 52 combined tackles, and 13 quarterback hits.<\/p>\n<p>Reader has completed 81 career solo tackles, the numbers either improving or steadied each season, and 73 assists.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"Q7kyyjENSR5yuuGxNb9YUA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1193619840\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Q7kyyjENSR5yuuGxNb9YUA',sig:'CPrZlKsSTVyovzUTmfz6Y3UYCA_b5QUlp8qhR4wPfVw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1193619840',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>D.J. Reader is officially no longer a free agent. The Clemson product spent the 2019 season with the AFC South champion Houston Texans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2420,"featured_media":82424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,7,14],"tags":[6366,1210,330,6235,61,114,40,246],"class_list":["post-82297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-bengals","category-texans","tag-2020-nfl-season","tag-bill-obrien","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-d-j-reader","tag-football","tag-houston-texans","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-news"],"modified_by":"Al Preziosi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}