The Cincinnati Bengals will have to make some very interesting salary cap decisions in the coming months because a number of important players, including defensive tackle D.J. Reader and wide receiver Tee Higgins, are expected to depart this offseason. Higgins may be the NFL’s best number-two receiver right now, but Reader will be much harder for Cincinnati to replace this offseason. Reader has made a name for himself as one of the NFL’s top nose tackles, and Cincinnati lacks a strong backup to replace him. Cincinnati has a few options when making decisions this year.
While it’s possible, given a number of circumstances, that the team will determine that Reader will be the hardest player to replace this offseason and attempt to sign him, that is extremely unlikely. First off, Reader is a nose tackle in his thirtys who will be returning from a lower body injury that ended his season.
While skill positions have made recovering from major injuries and tears in the ligaments seem fairly easy, picture yourself as a 330-pound man whose body is on a very fine line between being powerful and lethargic, being told to consume 20,000 calories a day (I’ve been there, it’s real), and then being unable to work out for an extended amount of time because of a hamstring injury. Reader is unlikely to return at nearly the same level the following season, and even if he does, it will likely take him some time to get back to his previous level. Cincinnati might not be too keen to wait for that at thirty.
