Emboldened by his encouraging rehab, the addition of his college defensive line coach and the potential return of something near NFL normalcy for a team that had so many close calls, Bengals nose tackle D.J. Reader has the same snap-crackle-and-pop optimism he brought with him last season in free agency.
"I'm in good spirits. I'm excited to come back and have a good year," said Reader Tuesday afternoon as he left his daily rehab in Houston. "We've got talent (on defense). Young talent at that. Those guys are in a great age group on that side of the ball. I'm one of the older guys on the defense going into year six. You don't really see that around the NFL."
First things first. Reader, rehabbing a torn quad that ended his superb season in the fifth week, says he has no doubts he'll be on the field at the beginning of training camp.
"Things are going well. It's not like something that is going to hold me back," Reader said. "It's a different day every day. It's a mental battle every day. That makes it fun. It's probably the most serious injury I've ever dealt with, but things are going as well as they can."
After that break-out year in 2019 with the Texans convinced the Bengals to make him the NFL's highest-paid nose tackle, Reader promptly took the next step even though he played just a handful of snaps with Geno Atkins in the middle.
After dropping about 20 pounds last offseason so he could play at about 320 pounds and get in more snaps, Reader responded to the off-season call to play the most downs of his career. In his previous 61 games in Houston, he had played more than 50 snaps in a game five times, topping out at 55 twice. In all four full games last season, he played at least 50 and that included a career-high 68 in Philly and 56 twice.
"I thought I was strong at the point. I played a lot plays. I felt like it worked out for me," Reader said. "I got off to a good start with a new team, but ultimately I wasn't satisfied. I don't think I ever will be.
"I felt like I started to get more pressure on the quarterback. I was making plays on the ball. I was tipping some passes. It was getting to be a lot more fun. I thought I played the run well. But that book is closed, so it's on to next year and I'm excited to see what happens."
Last week the Bengals signed new defensive line coach Marion Hobby, Reader's position coach at Clemson, a move he called "a great add."
"Guys are going to come back healthy, we'll add some guys, let's see what happens," he said of the defense.
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