The news broke today that the Vikings could be parting ways with their starting left tackle Riley Reiff. Reiff wants to keep his salary $10.9M and the Vikings want to pay him less. It’s my opinion that this is the going rate for a starting LT and Reiff has been a good one over his 7 year career. He was a first round pick for the Lions and last season only allowed 5 sacks.
Why not take a flyer on this guy? Well Jonah Williams is obviously the starting LT this season even if he struggles. Michael Jordan is having a great camp by all reports. Trey Hopkins is our starting center. LT’s rarely want to move to the right side because it is less money and Reiff clearly wants LT money. The Bengals have depth with Fred Johnson and Hakeem Adeniji as swing tackles. Hart is trying to hold on to RT and RG is likely going to be Xavier Su’a-Filo or Billy Price. So where does Reiff fit in?
Reiff would also likely want a longer deal. He is currently on a two-year deal and I would imagine he wants a three year safety net which pushes him into 34 years old. He could also do a one-year prove-it deal but that is also not to the Bengals advantage unless Williams is a huge miss (which is not likely).
In the offseason I clamored for a Trent Williams piece to be added and shuffle the OL around. We are two weeks out though and for OL continuity it would not make any sense to replace bookends and not feel a stability impact. If the Vikings do cut Reiff then someone is going to get a good deal on him; it just will not be the Bengals.