The Cincinnati Bengals received some bad news Tuesday when it was announced that defensive tackle D.J. Reader may be out for an extended period of the season.
Significant Bengals news: The initial tests reveal that DJ Reader, who suffered a knee injury against NYJ, will not be back anytime soon. It is not expected to be a season-ender, but the Bengals will be without their star nose tackle for an extended period of time, per source.
— Kelsey Conway (@KelseyLConway) September 27, 2022
The good news is the knee injury is not a season-ender, but they don’t know when he will return to the team. Reader suffered the injury Sunday against the New York Jets.
This would be a big blow to this defense. Many considered Reader the Bengals’ defensive MVP so far this season. While the Bengals’ offense has struggled early on, their defense has played pretty well. But Reader may be hard to replace, especially if he is gone for a significant portion of the year.
The Bengals are going to miss him, especially going up against the Miami Dolphins, who are 3-0 on the season and have been on fire offensively, on Thursday night. The Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has been torching defenses along with wideouts Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Having Reader on defense would have allowed the Bengals to put more pressure on Tagovailoa but now that he’s gone, that task was made tougher.
The Bengals schedule doesn’t get easier either so hopefully for the team’s sake, Reader’s return is sooner rather than later.
