The Cincinnati Bengals will be without DJ Reader for quite some time following the knee injury he sustained in Week 3 against the New York Jets. Reader was expected to miss ā€œsignificant timeā€ with the injury, and the Bengals' latest roster move all but confirms that belief. On Thursday, the Bengals announced their decision to place Reader on injured reserve, meaning he'll be out no less than four weeks.

It's certainly possible, and perhaps expected, that Reader will be out longer than four weeks, but the roster move allows the Bengals to have some more flexibility to work with in the coming weeks.

This is Reader's third year with the Bengals. In 2021, he featured and started in 15 games, recording 43 tackles, 2.0 sacks, seven QB hits, and three tackles for loss. This year, Reader logged 10 tackles, 3 QB hits, one fumble recovery, and one tackle for loss in his first three games.

After featuring on 67 percent of the Bengals' defensive snaps in Week 1 and 61 percent in Week 2, Reader's injury limited him to just 23 percent of the team's snaps on defense.

It's unclear when Reader will be able to return, but placing him on IR requires that he'll be forced to miss at least the next four weeks. Mike Garafolo indicated that the Bengals expect to have Reader back in about six weeks.

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Backup defensive tackle Josh Tupou is likely to take over starting duties in Reader's absence, and will hopefully be able to replicate the veteran's presence in the trenches.

The Bengals play on Thursday night in a Week 4 matchup against the Miami Dolphins. Both teams enter the clash dealing with injuries to key players, but not having Reader available will be a big loss for Cincinnati's run defense.

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