In their first major offseason acquisition of 2025, the Detroit Lions signed free agent cornerback D.J. Reed to a three-year contract worth up to $48 million. Following the departure of cornerback Carlton Davis III to the New England Patriots, Reed should take over a starting outside cornerback job for the Lions in 2025 and beyond.
To become more familiar with Reed’s game, I went back and watched four games from his 2024 season with the New York Jets. Watching that tape confirmed what I had been reading from people who follow Jets football much closer than I do—he is a smart, gritty defensive back who doesn’t shy away from a challenge.
Physically, he is a gifted mover in his backpedal, capable of flipping his hips effortlessly to stick with receivers. He has the top-end speed to stick with the majority of speedsters in the league, and based off what I saw from my study, his mental approach to the game may end up being one of his best qualities as a player.
Let’s get into the All-22 and and see how Reed’s game fits in with the rest of the Lions’ secondary.
Staying in-phase and playing the ball
Per Next Gen stats, Reed forced tight-window throws on 37.3% of his targets in 2024, good enough for fourth highest in the NFL. I didn’t see that until after watching a lot of Reed’s film, but it certainly makes sense when you watch how he plays the position.
Reed has exceptional change-of-direction skills, and rarely gets caught flat-footed while in coverage. This allows him to stay in the hip pocket of receivers, which in-turn makes things more difficult for opposing quarterbacks. Simply put, there aren’t a lot of uncontested catches for pass-catchers when they are being blanketed by Reed.
Watch in the first clip as he makes a really tough play on Buffalo Bills receiver Curtis Samuel on a third down late in the first quarter. Bills quarterback Josh Allen is in the shotgun, with a bunch to the left.
The Bills run what is essentially a man-beater concept, where the two inside receivers in the bunch run clear-out routes straight upfield, while Samuel releases inside and makes himself available to Allen across the middle of the field.
(Note: the NFL blocked the embed of the video)
Initially, Samuel gets a clean release and creates a bit of separation, but Reed is a technician. Watch his feet—zero wasted movement, and he is able to close the gap in an instant. If this is an away game, and a defensive back makes a play like this for the Lions—I am getting off my couch. Just an incredible play.
Next up we are jumping to the third quarter of the Buffalo game, where the Bills are facing a second-and-15.
The Jets are once again in man-coverage, with Reed working against Bills rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman. Allen is dealing with a free-runner coming off the right edge, and takes a deep shot to his rookie that ends up near the boundary.
Reed does an excellent job of getting hands on Coleman near the line of scrimmage, allowing him to maintain leverage as the receiver works upfield. Reed then locates the ball, and works through Coleman’s hands as the ball arrives.
There were a couple of tough penalties that were called on Reed against Buffalo, but it never stopped him from competing against the eventual MVP and the rest of the Bills’ high-powered offense.
For the last video in this section, we have the first play from scrimmage from the Jets Week 9 matchup against the Houston Texans. You can see Reed circled at the bottom of the screen, matched up with Texans tight end Cade Stover. The tight end runs a quick in-breaker, but Reed is all over it, working around Stover’s 6-foot-5 frame to get the pass breakup. Teach tape and another off-the-couch moment.
Football IQ and communication
As I mentioned earlier, you can tell when watching Reed on tape that he is a student of the game. Both pre and post-snap, he is a great communicator on the back end. In this next clip, Buffalo sends Coleman in motion towards the top of the screen, forcing Reed and the rest of the Jets secondary to sort the concept out just before Allen receives the snap.
New York is once again in man coverage, and they match up immediately, shutting down all of the options out of the bunch. Allen’s eyes appear to never work that way, and he ends up just missing Samuel despite him having a step on the defender.
Next up we have another clip from the Buffalo game, this time with Reed working against Bills’ receiver Mack Hollins. It’s second-and-8, and the Bills are in 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end) with Hollins at the top of your screen.
Allen brings him in motion to give Hollins more spacing to run his route against Reed. And if you watch the quarterback’s eyes, it appears that Hollins was the first read in this concept. However, Reed once again is in great position, and sits on the route from the jump. Allen quickly works away from Hollins, and ends up finding Kincaid in the middle of the field.
Fearlessness
This play was impressive for a few reasons. First, this was the very next snap after Reed was flagged for defensive pass interference on a deep shot to Hollins. All the best cornerbacks will tell you—a short-term memory is almost a necessity for the position. You get beat, shake it off, get ready for the next rep. Don’t let things snowball into an entire game.
And while Reed could have wrapped up better on this play, this shows that he doesn’t blink throughout the course of a game. He sees Samuel release into the flat, and he runs to the ball like his hair is on fire. It amounts to a 2-yard gain for the Bills, and a lost helmet for Reed.
As far as tackling goes, Reed checks all of the boxes for me as a cornerback. He is always willing to throw his weight around, and has sound technique the majority of the time when attempting to get ball carriers on the ground. Per PFF, he had a 64.3 tackling grade and only eight missed tackles in 2024.
While it wasn’t his best game in terms of penalties or production, I liked a lot of what I saw on Reed’s film, even during some of the tough moments that are inevitable against the really special quarterbacks in the NFL. That is why I featured a lot of clips from the Buffalo game. What better measuring stick than a Bills team that Lions fans saw firsthand how explosive they could be when Allen really got rolling?
Reed will be a leader in the secondary, and a key piece of a Lions defense that will be looking to reassert themselves as an elite unit under first-year defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard.
