The Detroit Lions open the NFL regular season in less than three weeks, and top free agent addition D.J. Reader said he still has "no real timetable" for when he'll be ready to return from a quadriceps injury.
"No real timetable, but I'm feeling good," Reader said Monday at a back-to-school event for his A Son Never Forgets Foundation in Detroit. "I'm feeling good about where I'm at in rehab and running around a little bit. So I'm excited about where I'm at. I don't necessarily have like a day or exactly when (I'll be back), but I'm feeling good though."
Reader, one of the top run-stuffing defensive tackles in the NFL, finished last season on injured reserve after tearing his right quad tendon in a December game with the Cincinnati Bengals.
He said after signing with the Lions this spring he expected to be ready by the start of the regular season, but he opened training camp on the physically unable to perform list and has not practiced this summer.
Reader, who tore his left quad in 2020, said his rehab from this surgery is "right on track" with the one he went through three years ago. Reader played in Week 1 of the 2021 season, but suffered his injury in October of 2020 and said he wasn't "able to get rolling until beginning, middle of camp."
Asked if he has ruled out playing in the Lions' Sept. 8 opener against the Los Angeles Rams, Reader said, "That's just one of those things. I'm just working every day to see where I'm at and just kind of where your feet land is where you land. So I haven’t put on the pads like the other guys yet so I'm just kind of in that realm."
The Lions have solid depth at the defensive tackle position with Alim McNeill, Levi Onwuzurike and Josh Paschal returning as contributors and sixth-round pick Mekhi Wingo playing well this preseason. Brodric Martin, who played sparingly as a rookie, and Kyle Peko have handled most of the nose tackle duties this summer in Reader's absence.
John Cominsky, who like Paschal can play both end and tackle, will miss a significant portion of the season with a knee injury.
If Reader opens the season on PUP, he would have to miss the season's first four games.
He acknowledged Monday it's more important to be around to help the Lions win in January and February than it is to rush back for Week 1.
"That's the thing you really want to be around then, but you got to get to there then, too," he said. "You got to make sure you take care of what's in front of you so we just got to do some things to get working."
Reader said he's "itching" to join his teammates on the field, and told Sports Illustrated he had a scope on his right knee in June.
"I know that I’m feeling good on where I'm at in rehab and just want to get started in being able to one day get some practices under me but don't know when that'll happen," he said. "So just there's some things you got to test out and keep working on necessarily. You might feel good mentally but you don’t necessarily know where you're at, so I'm just trying to work it out."
