Giants take creative route within NFL rules to replace Dexter Lawrence with veteran without affecting their future draft capital
New York is expected to sign veteran interior defensive lineman DJ Reader in free agency, but the team will wait until after the draft to protect its capital.
The New York Giants got a massive amount of draft capital late last week by trading nose tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the 10th overall pick. Now, general manager Joe Schoen and head coach John Harbaugh want to replace Lawrence with a veteran, and they found a smart way to do it without affecting the team’s future draft capital.
Giants is expected to sign DJ Reader after the draft
According to beat writer Paul Schwartz, from the New York Post, the Giants are expected to sign veteran nose tackle DJ Reader in free agency right after the draft. By doing that, New York makes sure the move won’t affect its compensatory pick formula for 2027.
Right now, the Giants are set to receive a fourth-round pick for losing wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who signed with the Tennessee Titans for $17.5 million on yearly average.
How the compensatory pick formula works
The NFL created the comp picks as a way to reward teams that developed players. The Giants also lost Cor’Dale Flott, Daniel Bellinger, Dane Belton, and Austin Schlottmann in free agency, but those picks were canceled out because the Giants added Isaiah Likely, Greg Newsome, Jordan Stout, and Patrick Ricard. Nonetheless, the team is still able to generate a fourth-rounder, and that’s why waiting to sign Reader is so impactful.
What the Giants add with Reader
DJ Reader is a 31-year-old interior defensive lineman. Drafted in the fifth round back in 2016, he played four seasons for the Houston Texans, then another four for the Cincinnati Bengals — curiously enough, the same team that traded for Lawrence. Over the past two years, Reader was on the Detroit Lions — there, Reader generated 40 pressures and had 28 stops.
The veteran nose tackle didn’t replicate in Detroit the high level he had shown in Cincinnati, but he is still a solid rotational piece at a position where it’s not necessarily easy to find competent play. After trading Dexter Lawrence, the Giants are making sure they will have a playable option right away — and that it won’t affect the team’s draft plans in the future.