A former Clemson defender has been placed on the NFL injured reserve.
Current Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle D.J. Reader was placed on IR on Thursday after leaving the Bengal’s Week 3 win over the New York Jets with a left knee injury.
Reader will have to miss at least four weeks while under the injured reserve designation, but is expected to be out for six weeks with an MCL injury, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
In his time at Clemson (2012-15), Reader recorded 145 tackles, nine tackles for loss, five sacks and 24 quarterback pressures over the course of 1,087 snaps and 46 games. At the time, the North Carolina native was the second Tiger (first was Kyle Parker in 2009-2010) to play both football and baseball at Clemson since 1994-95.
After four seasons with the Tigers, Reader was drafted in the fifth round (No. 166 overall) of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Houston Texans.
#Bengals DT D.J. Reader, placed on IR today, has an MCL injury that the team hopes he can return from in around six weeks, per sources. Bengals felt Reader — who has full intentions of resuming play in 2022 — was playing at a Pro Bowl level before injury.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) September 29, 2022
Zac Taylor said it's going to take a couple of weeks to sort out how many weeks DJ Reader will be out.
"It's gonna take this IR period to really assess what the final number of weeks is gonna be."
The earliest he could return is the Week 8 Monday night game at Cleveland.
— Jay Morrison (@JayMorrisonATH) September 30, 2022
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