After losing Carlton Davis to a big contract with the New England Patriots, the Detroit Lions moved quickly to agree to terms with his replacement in DJ Reed. Based on what else the cornerback market has born as free agency gets going, with new deals and contract extensions, the reported three-year, $48 million deal ($32 million guaranteed) to get Reed looks more and more like a bargain.
Reed had been offered up as a replacement option and a nice fit for the Lions if Davis departed, and indeed it happened (pending the deal becoming official on Wednesday).
Reed has not been an interception-maven (zero last season, no more than two in any season of his career), but he has at least nine pass breakups in four straight seasons. Pro Football Focus has given him an overall grade north of 70.0 in six straight seasons, and he transitioned from playing in the slot at the start of his career with the San Francisco 49ers to playing on the outside with the Seattle Seahawks. With the Jets, he teamed with Sauce Gardner to form one of the top cornerback tandems in the league in recent years.
NFL analyst loves the Lions' signing of DJ Reed
Plenty of high marks have come for the Lions' signing of Reed. Of particular note was ESPN analyst Mina Kimes during Monday's free agency coverage on the network.
"This is one of my favorite signings thus far in free agency, starting with the value", Kimes said (h/t to SI.com). "I mean you saw the Jaycee Horn deal coming in. This is a bargain, honestly, well outside the top 10 in average pay for cornerbacks. D.J. Reed has been underrated everywhere he goes, and yet he's still only 28 years old. He can play man, he can play zone. He can also allow the lions to continue developing their young corners. I think about Ennis Rakestraw coming off of the injury. So you have that nice blend of young guys and now a veteran in Reed. To me, this was a home run signing and allows them to avoid reaching for a cornerback in the draft. I really like this."
Reed's reported $16 million per year average is below the $19.1 million per year mark that was the 10th-highest paid cornerback in the league (L'Jarius Sneed) before free agency started. Two reported free agent deals have topped that $19.1 million mark, and another free agent deal agreed to on Monday topped Reed's average.
So the Lions got one of the top, if not the top, free agent cornerback available and they got him at a bargain relative to the rest of the market at the position. Time will tell how it works out, but Reed looks like the multi-year solution for a veteran cornerback that has proved elusive for Detroit.
