CINCINNATI -- One day after the Cincinnati Bengals' season officially ended, scenes inside their locker room offered reminders about the team's upcoming reality.
Players traded jerseys with personalized messages, a tradition generally observed after games between players from opposing teams who are friends. Others bagged or boxed up their belongings and said their goodbyes before leaving town. And some offered words about an uncertain future.
One of them was defensive tackle DJ Reader, a cornerstone of Cincinnati's rebuild. A right quad injury in Week 15 ended Reader's fourth season with the Bengals and the final one under his current contract.