When Detroit Lions cornerback D.J. Reed suffered a hamstring injury in just his fourth game of the 2025 season, it was so bad that he was sure he was going to need surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough, I\u2019m not going to lie,\u201d Reed told reporters on Thursday. \u201cJust with the severity of the strain. I thought that I initially needed surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reed worked his way through extensive rehab and managed to find his way back onto the field just two months later. He had to re-teach himself how to walk and run, but he did it. He finished out the season in Detroit by starting the final seven games of the season.<\/p>\n
By his own admission, though, he wasn\u2019t the same player upon his return. He didn\u2019t feel all that different out on the field, but when he turned on the tape, he noticed he was falling behind receivers in a way he hadn\u2019t before the injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like I was going out there and I couldn\u2019t run; it was more so like, I was watching the tape and watching how I was covering guys before the injury, I was just more stickier, and I had that burst that I\u2019m accustomed to having,\u201d Reed said. \u201cJust with watching later in the season in other games, it was the same thing, same technique, but guys were just running by me. I just didn\u2019t have that extra gear.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Reed sought out solutions to regain that explosiveness. Previously, he got a tip from a former teammate and close friend: future Hall of Fame linebacker Fred Warner. Warner told him to pursue stem cell treatment, so Reed did exactly that, heading down to Panama to hopefully speed up the healing process and get his speed back.<\/p>\n
\u201dI\u2019ve been going there for not only my hammy from last year, but I get a couple things done while I\u2019m down there,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n
I asked if he felt like he has his explosiveness back now as the Lions close out their offseason activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s definitely there now,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n
Last offseason, the Lions invested heavily in Reed. After not being able to retain Carlton Davis in free agency, they handed Reed a three-year, $48 million contract in the hopes he could be their long-term starter opposite first-round pick Terrion Arnold. It\u2019s a critical year for Reed, because while there\u2019s a third year on that deal for 2027, it\u2019s basically a team option with a $13.6 million option bonus that triggers only if he\u2019s still on the roster by April.<\/p>\n
So Reed is continuing to put in the work, because the rehab and prehab of the hamstring isn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good, but it\u2019s something that you need to continue to work out and rehab,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Detroit Lions cornerback D.J. Reed suffered a hamstring injury in just his fourth game of the 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[291781,4992,39966,4993,2130,349,99],"class_list":["post-699855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-detroit-lions-otas","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-detroit-lions-preseason","tag-detroit-lions-quotes","tag-detroit-lions-training-camp","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}