UPDATE (3:35 PM): Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Hill has a “potentially significant” quad injury. He will have an MRI to determine the exact severity.
During the first quarter of Saturday’s game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Minnesota Vikings, star DT D.J. Reader was injured and had to be carted off the field. He was quickly ruled out according to the Bengals’ Twitter page with a knee injury.
Reader is one of the most important players on the Bengals’ defense. He is in the middle of his eighth season in the NFL and has spent the last four seasons with the Bengals. This season he has started all 14 games, and has 34 combined tackles, 20 solo tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, and seven QB hits. With Reader out, Josh Tupou will be the next man up for the Bengals. Tupou is a veteran, but has seen very limited action this season with just 10 total tackles on the season.
This injury will most likely keep Reader out of the Steelers-Bengals game next Saturday. The already banged up Bengals team looks to be one more key player short as they try to keep their playoff hopes alive behind QB Jake Browning. The Bengals already lost their franchise QB Joe Burrow for the season with a torn ligament in his hand last month. It seemed like their playoff hopes would be done from that point forward, but Browning has stepped up in a big way keeping the Bengals right in the thick of the playoff hunt at 7-6.
UPDATE (1:39 PM): CB/ST D.J. Ivey was also carted off the field with an apparent knee injury in the first quarter of the game. Ivey does not get much play on the defense, but serves a key role on the Bengals’ special teams unit as their gunner. He was quickly ruled out for the game via a post from the Bengals’ official Twitter account. Ivey’s lone special teams tackle this season came against the Steelers in Week 12. This injury will also likely hold him out of Week 16’s game against the Steelers.
