On Thursday night, news broke that the Detroit Lions are expected to release Damon ‘Snacks’ Harrison, despite signing him to a contract extension prior to the 2019 season.
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The move did not come as much of a surprise as Snacks was a shell of himself this past season (due to injuries) and he even hinted at possible retirement following the last game of the season.
Now that Harrison is gone (or he will be when the Lions make it official), the question is, how will the Lions replace him? Will they sign a free agent who can play nose tackle? Will they look to the NFL Draft to find Snacks’ replacement?
In my opinion, and I wrote about this before, there is one upcoming free agent who I believe could fill in nicely for Harrison.
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That player is Houston Texans DT D.J. Reader.
Reader, who is currently 26, is a run-stuffing DT that can make opponents think twice about running up the middle. Though Reader does not often get to the quarterback (6.5 sacks in his career), he did set a career-high in QB hits (13) in 2019.
The question is, how much money will Reader demand? My best guess would be that he gets around $10 million per season over maybe 3-4 years.
