
The Detroit Lions had a big signing in the offseason when they replaced Carlton Davis with D.J. Reed. We've seen how much of a difference he's already made, but sadly, he got hurt early in the year and was put on IR.
At this point, we don't know when he'll be back. What we do know is that if he's out a little bit longer, the Lions could get rewarded for it.
Finally, DJ Reed missing time due to injury has to be frustrating to the Lions.
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) October 21, 2025
But there could be a very outside chance of a scenario like this that give them a 4th round 2026 compensatory pick if he continues to miss more time. pic.twitter.com/HcEcIeIGu4
Nick Korte of Over the Cap is the top compensatory pick expert out there, and he's showing it here with this little find. It's a hard strategy to figure out, and we're not even going to try.
What we can tell you is that because Reed is a CFA(compensatory free agent) replacing a CFA, if he can't play a certain amount of snaps and Davis, the player the Lions lost, plays a lot of snaps, the league will consider Reed as loss value for the Lions and give them a compensatory pick to replace that value.
As Korte noted, it's an outside chance at this point. Don't put that fourth-round pick in your mock drafts just yet. In another Tweet, Korte explains that right now he's at 48% of the required snaps and the Lions are just missing the pick. If he stays below that, they could potentially get it.
The thing is, this won't stop the Lions from bringing him back when he's ready. A fourth-round pick is cool, but this team wants to win. That's why we say that you shouldn't count on this, but it is a possibility.
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