Lions Place Three Players On PUP List, Including DL D.J. Reader & OLB Marcus Davenport

The Lions announced they are placing three players on the physically unable to perform list on Sunday, including DL D.J. Reader, OLB Marcus Davenport, and DB Brian Branch.

The team is also placing rookie OT Giovanni Manu on the non-football injury list. 

Reader, 29, is a former fifth-round pick of the Texans back in 2016. He played out the final year of his four-year, $2.55 million contract with the Texans.

The Bengals signed Reader to a four-year, $53 million deal as an unrestricted free agent in 2020. He made base salaries of $9 million and $11 million in the final two years of his deal and is now an unrestricted free agent. 

In 2023, Reader appeared in 14 games for the Bengals, recording 34 total tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, a fumble recovery and a pass defense.

Davenport, 27, was drafted by the Saints in the first round out of UTSA in 2018. He signed a four-year, $13.741 million rookie contract with the Saints in 2018 that included an $8.074 million signing bonus.

The Saints picked up his fifth-year option for the 2022 season that paid him $9.553 million fully guaranteed.

Davenport was testing the open market as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his NFL career when the Vikings signed him to a one-year, $13 million deal. They wound up placing him on injured reserve back in October after just four games.

In 2023, Davenport appeared in four games for the Vikings and recorded seven tackles and two sacks.