Houston Texans 2016 Draft Report Card

Fifth Round – Pick #166

D.J. Reader – DT – Clemson

6’3” – 327

Grade: A-

We truly expected the Texans to draft a defensive end to replace Jared Crick, in one of the earlier rounds.  In hindsight, I think they should have taken one in the first, but nevertheless, they did add some serious beef to the defensive line in the 5th round with D.J. Reader from Clemson.

Reader is a massive man, 6’3”, 327 pounds and will likely group to be the heir apparent behind Vince Wilfork.  This gives them Wilfork’s future replacement but it also free’s up guys like Christian Covington and Jeffrey Pagan to play DE instead of playing slightly out of position at the nose tackle spot.

We like Reader in this role.  If you put on the Alabama tape in the National Championship game you’ll see Reader dominate Colts 1st round pick, center Ryan Kelly from Alabama at the end of the game.  That’s something that didn’t happen often with Kelly.

Reader also showed maturity and perseverance as he overcame the death of his father in 2014 while he was at Clemson.

He was also the Captain of a very good college defense that was loaded with future early round NFL draft picks. Reader was an integral part of stuffing the run and plugging up the middle so that edge rushers Shaq Lawson and Kevin Dodd could pin their ears back and get to the QB. He also excelled at the Senior Bowl like most of these selections.

The reason you don’t see many nose tackles drafted high anymore is NFL teams play nickel or dime packages around 65% of the time these days and the nose tackle is usually not on the field for those.  But at the end of the 5th round to get a guy that can plug that middle on running downs and can be your NT of the future is excellent value.

Next: Overall Draft Comments And Final Grade