With mandatory minicamp wrapping up on Thursday, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell provided a bit of a health update on a couple of free agent signees who have been out with injuries.
Most notably, Campbell offered the first real sense of a timeline for defensive tackle D.J. Reader. Signed as a priority early in the free agency process, Reader is still recovering from a torn quadriceps that ended his 2023 season with the Cincinnati Bengals.
“Yeah, I would say Reader would be the one who – he’ll be a decision on at what point is he ready to start practicing,” Campbell said of the projected starter. “But that’s not something that we’re caught off guard by. We knew this would take a minute here. I would anticipate everybody else to be pretty close to ready, if not it’s going to be tight. It’ll be enough to where they’re going to get a really good amount of training camp work, if that makes sense.
So no, there’s nobody that I’m alarmed by. I would say Reader is probably the one that’s going to take a minute.”
Earlier this offseason, Reader talked optimistically about his recovery. It’s the same injury he suffered in 2020. Reader suffered this latest injury in mid-December, which puts him at a little over six months out. With training camp starting in another seven or so weeks, that gives Reader almost eight full months of recovery.
Campbell indicated that every other currently sidelined player should be “pretty close to ready” to start training camp. That list includes CB Emmanuel Moseley, LT Taylor Decker, RB Jahmyr Gibbs, DB Brian Branch, S Kerby Joseph and EDGE Marcus Davenport.