Add The New York Post on Google New Giants free agent addition, veteran defensive lineman DJ Reader, tackles some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: What would you tell Giants fans about the pressure on you to help replace Dexter Lawrence?
A: I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself as a player, especially in the run game. Obviously there’s pressures from the outside, but I don’t pay attention to ’em as much. I feel very confident in me being to do the job I came here to do. Not gonna be that player, not looking to be Dex, he plays the game a little bit different than the way I play it, but I feel like we both do it effectively. We affect the game. We affect the quarterback, we affect the run game. The thing is a special way that I do it, and I’ve been doing it for a long time at a high level in my position. So I would just say you’re getting a physical player who’s really bought into the system and is gonna play his ass off.
Q: Give me an example of your physical toughness.
A: Just turn the film on. You don’t see me going backwards too often. You see the way I hold in on double teams, the way I hold in on single blocks, all those things, I’m in there. Two knee injuries later, I’m still in there. I’m not one of those guys who’s just gonna give up on you. I think you’re gonna see me play to the last play. I pride myself on being physical and tough.
Q: Give me an example of your mental toughness.
A: Played in Chicago, shoulder popped out, came back in. In the heat of the game, I’m always a pretty calm person, you’re never gonna see me there just freaking out. I pitched a lot growing up playing baseball, so I find peace in chaos. I find peace when everything’s flying, things are moving around. Have you ever seen the movie [“For Love of the Game”]? He says, “Clear the mechanism” in the movie. Football, even when there’s chaos there, it’s good.
Q: How would you describe your on-field mentality?
A: Smart, hard-nose, just tough player. I’m gonna be there in the middle, not going anywhere. I tell guys, “Exit 98’s always closed, man. I’m always there. Can’t get off on Exit 98, no car’s passing there.”
Q: Will this defense be able to stop the run?
A: Yeah, I confidently believe so. We gotta go out there and do it, but I believe so.
Q: How and why have you been doubted all your life?
A: I don’t know, honestly. I wouldn’t say I was the best, I wasn’t one of the worst kids, but I never was really the best kid on any of my sports teams for a while until high school where I thought I was a lot better … middle school, high school, I was really good at baseball. Football I was still coming along. But just kind of doubted in that way. … I remember when I was 9 years old, there was a guy who told me I wasn’t athletic enough to play on his baseball team, and that kind of just stuck with me for a long time in playing sports. Most people would have been, “Oh, I’m gonna prove him wrong.” More so I was thinking, “I gotta prove me right.” Kept working, kept working, kept working. Three-star recruit, felt like I should have been higher. Hit over .500 in high school baseball. I felt like people thought it was a fluke. All those things kind of add into you start having a lot of self-confidence without being rah-rah and overly joyful about it, you just more so, hey, I feel very confident in who I am and what I do when I strap up any kind of pads or put on any kind of sports gear. And that really made me resilient.
Q: Running around in a trash bag?
A: (Laugh) It was my elementary school football. Keenan Allen played on my team. We got like five pro players from our team, but you know they had weight limits back then. And I was like 7 years old running around with a trash bag trying to lose weight to make weight limits. Playing nose guard, it’s a position you can kind of suffer in taking double teams and stuff all the time. Not a lot of kids are doing that around the United States. I felt like that was my advantage always.
Q: It’s a thankless job, isn’t it?
A: Yeah, it is, but I get a lot of thanks in it, I like watching my teams make plays, I get to make some plays. It’s not the most glorious position, but it’s fun.
Q: How banged up are you after a game?
A: Some days I feel like I got hit by a truck. Some days it’s like getting hit by a moped. So it just depends on what the game was like.
A: I talk a little bit. I could pop it a little bit. I like to think I’m pretty witty. I keep trash-talking a little lighthearted. I’m not as angry as I was when I was a little bit younger.
Q: How would you sum up John Harbaugh?
A: He demands a lot of you, but he’s fun to be around. He’s about the right stuff. He would have been a good lawyer if he went into that career. … He’s just a good talker, he’s got some charisma about him, and he’s very persistent.
Q: Whatever comes to mind: Arvell Reese.
A: Freak athlete who’s a really, really good football player.
A: A guy who’s special on the edge, and until being here with him this year, didn’t know how physical he was at the point of attack.
A: Another freak athlete who’s really, really growing into his own as a rusher, as a football player, and it’s fun to watch, and just take on more self-responsibility every day.
Access the Giants like never before Get texts from Paul Schwartz with all the latest Giants news and insights, exclusive to Sports+ subscribers.
A: He’s got all the tools, but he works his ass off.
A: A young kid finding his way, man, but he’s got some tools with him that it’s fun to be around.
A: Strong, physical. Just a monster in the middle.
A: Really nice guy to be around who’s gonna be a good quarterback. Makes some special throws that wow you at times, and then he can really, really use his legs and move around, which is impressive.
Q: Odell Beckham Jr. back in No. 13.
A: Excited for him. Obviously, a guy when I was younger, top of the league … amazing. Just went through his ups and downs, but still just so much juice and talent left in his body that, like, it’s impressive to watch him work, and grow his confidence back. I think as a player sometimes when you’re that high, and things don’t go your way, it’s a hard climb back. So watching that climb back is always just fun for me as a player to see because you see that you really gotta go through it, and nobody’s gonna get you out of those fires but you, and he’s walking though that fire and he’s coming out on the other side. It should be special.
Q: What do you remember about playing against Najee Harris when he was with the Steelers?
A: Tough to tackle. I remember just having arguments with him on going down, like, “Please just stop running through everything.”
A: Physical runner, young kid finding his way in this league, but physical runner coming off injury really want to prove people wrong. He’s a good blocker too, really, really good blocker, put his face in there.
Q: Playing for Aaron Glenn in Detroit.
A: I loved A.G., man, that’s my dawg, man. A.G.’s a really, really good coach, and really good person. Just the way he talks to you, the way he loves on you when you make a play, as hard as he is on you when you’re doing things wrong, he’s the first one there to pick you up when you make a play. It’s a good feeling as a football player when somebody … they’re on you, they mess with you and they talk to you, you don’t feel scared ever to go talk to him about anything. He could have dogged you at practice, and you can still go right up to him, have a conversation after. That’s what makes coaches who are able to receive and talk to you that way and deliver that way, it makes it special.
Q: Describe Dennard Wilson’s coaching style.
A: Similar to A.G.’s. It’s cool listening to Dennard break things down. He’s fun, you can go talk to him, chat with him. But you can tell he’s on a mission, and that’s fun to see from your coaches, just his laser focus on what he’s got going.
Q: What do you like about his defense?
A: I like the mix of aggressiveness and then sometimes playing ball. You got Jimmy and Joes out there, it’s not always about Xs and Os, but we got some smart guys that you can mix some things and play some things different and I think that’s gonna make it really, really fun.
Q: Tell me about your father, David.
A: He was my hero. I tell people all the time I was blessed to have a really, really good father. Community leader, teacher … just really, really good overall man.
Q: How devastating was it for you when he passed from kidney disease in 2014?
A: It was tough on me, being a kid. I was in college [Clemson], but as a kid you don’t really think anything can happen to your Superman. That was a tough thing for me to deal with. I tell people all the time as a man, I never really had to ask another man to seek guidance until the time I was 20 years old when my dad passed away, and that was a real tough thing for me to deal with getting older, especially coming into the league, those type of things. It was really hard.
Q: What was the best advice he gave you?
A: My dad did a good job of me being a young kid and just pouring confidence into me. Whether things worked out or whether they didn’t, he poured confidence in me about trying new things, working hard and taking life in stride, knowing that if you went out there and tried your best, you’d always be happy with whatever the outcome is. You might not get the things that you want, or get through stuff that you want, but you’ll always be happy with the outcome if you put your best foot forward.
Q: Tell me about your mom, Felicia.
A: She’s the strongest person I know, man. That’s my girl. My mom’s just so mentally strong as a woman, and it’s helped me so much in my life, with her just never shaking. Anything that happens, she’s the matriarch of our family now. No matter what’s going on, no matter who it is, what’s happened, troubles I’ve gotten in — when my dad passed and my mom called me, she didn’t cry, she just told me what was going on and just kind of said, “This is our situation and we gotta make the best” of what was going on. I watched her just go through a lot with her family. She takes everything with a smile on her face.
Q: She’s the one who broke the news to you about your dad?
A: She called actually our team chaplain Jeff Davis, and Jeff Davis came over, woke my roommates up first, and they were able to wake me up. I thought we were just going to morning workouts, and they kind of met me downstairs. We walked outside, he told me right outside. I remember my roommate, Stephone Anthony, kind of stopped me from hitting the ground, I was just kind of in shock. Then she kind of got on the phone and told me the news. There was no shake in her voice. She had tried to resuscitate my dad for 20 minutes before the ambulance showed up.
A: Knowing all the work me and my dad put in as a kid that made me ultra-competitive, not unrealistic, but ultra-competitive as a person. Anything within my power, the drive to get better, and the drive to want to be good, and great every year, I think that’s really what pushes me, and I got two boys at home who now look up to me, and I just want to make sure I’m doing the right things so they see me.
A: I got a 6-year-old [Rocky] and a 3-month old [Roman].
Q: Is the 6-year-old a football fan yet?
A: Yeah, he’s playing now. He’s playing guard, playing defensive tackle. He had like six tackles, a fumble recovery and like four pancakes the other day. He’s enjoying it.
View this post on Instagram Q: Favorite entertainer?
Q: What do you think about playing in New York?
A: What better place to do it? It seems like a fun football town. That last game against the Jets, it was cool to see the stadium fill up a little bit between the two New York teams. Just so much history here.
Q: What do you know about Giants defensive tradition?
A: I know they’re usually good. And they always got some big players out there. So we’re holding on to the big players and we gotta make sure we’re good now.
A: (Laugh) I never seen that many fans on the walk-up into the game. There’s packed people on both sides. They seem like fun fans.
Q: How hungry are you to win a Super Bowl championship?
A: Man, super hungry. I’ve gotten there once [with the 2021 Bengals], played a good game in it, so now I’m just really trying to get it done. I want to take that step and really get that done in my career.
A: Yes. … We got the players and coaches to do it. Now it’s just we gotta do it. But we got a special roster.
