D.J. Reader, NT, Cincinnati Bengals
A few different teams made additions to their defensive fronts that are going to pay huge dividends. Largely because of the pairings they will be able to implement up front. The final three players on this list are all examples of this idea. We can start with D.J. Reader, who joined the Cincinnati Bengals from the Houston Texans. Reader might be a bit of a rare breed in today’s NFL, a traditional 3-4 nose tackle. But he’ll be joining the Bengals and their base 4-3 front. While “base” packages in today’s game tend to be sub-packages, given how often offenses use 11 offensive personnel, Cincinnati still uses a NT in their four-man front.
Right now that is Andrew Billings. You can drop Reader into that position, and now he’ll have three great running mates in Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap and Sam Hubbard. That is a pretty solid group that the Bengals are putting together. Furthermore, Billings saw 61 percent of the Bengals’ defensive snaps last year, while Reader saw 58 percent of Houston’s. Reader should see more playing time, and while he won’t have J.J. Watt to run with, he has three solid running mates.