The way DJ Reader sees it, eye for an eye. Shortly after the Lions’ loss to the Steelers on Sunday, Reader got tagged underneath a post on X criticizing his play — “Man you been rough out there,” it read — with someone in the comments writing, “Just hang em up brother.”
“Aye SMD mane please leave me alone,” Reader wrote back.
When another commenter responded by doubting Reader’s Walter Payton Man of the Year credentials and pointing to the fact that he’ll be a free agent next year, Reader, who’s in the final season of a two-year, $22 million deal with Detroit, wrote back, “All good I’ll be getting bread somewhere.”
Photo credit X
“People get on there and troll, I’ll troll back,” Reader said Monday. “It is what it is. I’m not, like, slanting away from any of my comments, but yeah, people get on social media and troll, I feel like I got the right to troll back. It doesn’t really bother me at the end of the day. It doesn’t create any arguments in my house or anything like that. I go home to a little boy who’s happy as hell to see me, my family loves me, so it is what it is.”
Reader didn’t play poorly in the Lions’ 29-24 loss to Pittsburgh that put their season on life support, but the veteran nose tackle and run stuffer was an easy target for angry fans on a day the defense allowed 230 yards on the ground. Reader played 39 defensive snaps and was credited with three tackles and three quarterback pressures, tied for the team lead. He was actually Detroit’s fourth highest-graded defensive player, per PFF.
Reader, 31, said the comments on X “didn’t really get under my skin” and “it’s not like one of things where I’m gonna sit there and conversate back and forth with people who don’t know what’s going on or don’t know the schemes of what’s supposed to go on or any of those things.”
“Usually I don’t ever even see it, but this time I just happened to be tagged under it, so I felt like, hey, it’s the time for me to respond, and it was the response that came to mind at the time,” Reader said.
Reader is one of the most well-liked players in Detroit’s locker room and around the NFL. Earlier this month, he was named the Lions’ 2025 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award winner for his philanthropic work in the community and strong play on the field. He won the same team award with the Texans in 2019 and received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Volunteer Service Award in 2022.
As for Detroit’s defense, Reader acknowledges the last handful of games have been rough. The run defense hit rock bottom against the Steelers, allowing an average of 8.5 yards per carry, and two 45-yard touchdowns by Jaylen Warren in the fourth quarter. Reader called the issues a “mix of things” and said that opponents “have just had some really, really good plans” against Detroit the last couple weeks.
The Steelers used a lot of heavy personnel, like the Rams did the week prior, which created extra gaps in the run game that the Lions weren’t able to cover. That was the case on both of Warren’s touchdowns, and “that’s always a little difficult when you’re adjusting to it on the fly, not necessarily something that you’ve been seeing all year,” Reader said.
“They’re professionals, they’re going to hit plays, but then when they create extra gaps it just messes up somebody’s fit and somebody else has to cover for that fit. It’s tough. Up front it’s a little bit similar, so we’re getting kind of the same blocks, which is a little bit easier to see, but on the backend I’m sure when you’re coming down, all of a sudden somebody is there that wasn’t supposed to be there, now you gotta go over top or you gotta do this and it might be a little difficult. It creates some little mismatches in certain stuff — some good plays they schemed up,” Reader said.
Pittsburgh also hit Detroit on several jet sweeps to versatile back Kenneth Gainwell and even tight end Jonnu Smith, who also got a toss out of the backfield on a play that was dressed up as a sweep to Gainwell. When the Steelers motioned Smith into the backfield at one point, said Reader, “you’re thinking, ‘alright, the tight end’s getting it this time,’ and then they run it with (Gainwell).”
“They hit in all different kinds of places, so it was a little more of a difficult adjustment to make than we thought,” said Reader.
The Steelers’ creativity on the ground “wasn’t necessarily (stuff) they hadn’t shown” on film, said Reader, “it was just the timing of when it happened. There were a couple things that came out in a little bit different formations than what they had run it out of, kind of kept it off-topic with the jet sweeps.”
“It’s hard to tell somebody to get up field, you get up field and they come back with an insert run and then you’re in a bad spot,” Reader said. “It seems easy to fix when you’re watching it on TV. But when you’re in the game and in a pickle, it’s a little different. Some of those things can get a little hazy. You’re talking out of both sides of your mouth of what you’re supposed to do. That was really it, and just some timing runs where we got caught in some calls and they just adjusted it. Aaron (Rodgers) might have seen it and adjusted at the right time, him being a vet and knowing what was going on.”
That’s exactly what happened on Warren’s first touchdown. Rodgers sniffed out that Avonte Maddox was coming on a safety blitz, checked into a run that went away from Maddox and toward the heavy side of the Steelers’ front with an extra lineman and two tight ends, and let the blocking take care of the rest.
Reader was trying to shed a block from the center on the play, but the center was moving in the same lateral direction “and he’s got the snap count, so it’s a little bit harder to get across him.” Reader eventually got knocked to the turf from behind by fellow defensive lineman Tyrus Wheat, who was trying to chase down the play from the backside. By the time Reader was getting to his feet, Warren was waltzing into the end zone and Rodgers was pumping his fist at midfield.
“Our blitz was coming from the opposite way of where they were running, and it was just a good check by him. We just got caught in a call that he’d seen a couple times throughout the game and just made a good check to it,” Reader said. “It was tough. We gotta find a way to just get it on the ground and line up for the next play. It was going to be explosive either way. We just gotta find a way to get it on the ground.”
Reader plays a pretty thankless role in Detroit’s defense. He’s logged the fourth most snaps in the A gap in the NFL this season, and faced double-teams about 73 percent of the time, the third highest rate in the league, per PFF. Opposing teams generally refuse to let him beat them inside.
Given his reputation as a stout run defender, Reader takes it personally when the Lions get abused on the ground like they did by the Steelers.
“But you go watch it and tell me what I could have done about those (long) runs, you know?” he said. “I’m playing the shade and it’s not like I could’ve done much about those runs. It’s not like I’m blaming anybody else, I’m sure there’s plays that I gave up that could have made a difference as well, but I couldn’t do anything about those runs. Those weren’t really in a place where I could have made the difference.”
If the Steelers did some of what the Rams did to beat the Lions, it stands to reason the Vikings might do the same on Thursday. The Lions went lighter in the box against Pittsburgh to try to aid their wounded secondary, and it bit them on the ground.
“A lot of it was insert stuff (with extra tight ends and/or offensive linemen), which is kind of difficult when you’re doing certain things on defense,” said Reader. “I just think us having a better plan, we’re going to go out there and put it on the line these last two games.”
The playoffs are a long-shot for the Lions, who need to win their final two games and need the Packers to lose their final two. Detroit hasn’t won back to back games since early October. Playoff-bound or not, “you’re playing for who you are as a player,” said Reader.
And potentially for your next contract.
“You just gotta worry about playing for your pride and your respect and also just the culture you want to leave and build,” Reader said. “Nobody out there is feeling sorry for you. Just gotta go out there and try to put your best foot forward and end the season on a good note.”