Analyst offers trade candidate for the Lions that just might come to fruition

Heading into the 2025 NFL Draft, with rumors surfacing around one player in particular, it was worth wondering if the Detroit Lions would end up trading anyone over the course of the three days. Nothing happened on that front, but as the roster is assessed after the draft the door remains open to a move if it makes sense.

Certain Lions' draft picks will push players at their position toward or onto the roster bubble, and possibly render some free agent signings from this offseason inconsequential. But in the spirit of competition that Dan Campbell wants to foster, some position battles in training camp should be very interesting to watch. There's also an avenue to some players being traded if things break a certain way between now and Week 1.

With that in mind, in light of using the 28th overall pick on defensive tackle Tyleik Williams. John Vaccaro of Athlon Sports offered an eye-opening possible post-draft trade candidate for the Lions.

Defensive tackle DJ Reader.

Would the Lions really trade DJ Reader?

Taking Williams at No. 28 overall was with an eye on the present and the future for the Lions. Alim McNeill is unlikely to be ready for the start of the season as he works his way back from a torn ACL late last season. Reader will also turn 31 in July, so Williams is most likely in line to replace him at nose tackle down the road.

Coming off a torn quad with the Cincinnati Bengals late in the 2023 season, the Lions got a bargain by signing Reader to a two-year deal last offseason. He was mostly healthy (15 games played) last season, and had a solidly unremarkable campaign (three sacks, 20 quarterback pressures and four tackles for loss over 508 snaps).

Any idea about trading Reader has to account for the salary cap implications. His 2025 cap hit is $12.93 million, and if he was traded before June 1 the Lions would clear $7.961 million in cap space with $4.97 million left behind in dead money for this year. A post-June 1 trade would shift the 2025 cap savings to $11.69 million ($1.243 million in dead money).

At first glance, with McNeill's injury recovery in mind, the Lions trading Reader to reduce their defensive tackle depth seems wildly unlikely. But there's a non-zero chance it moves from patently unlikely to very possible in the coming weeks or months, with a meritocracy/an interior defensive line surplus pushing Reader toward the trade block.