Pro Football Focus not big fans of Minnesota Vikings free agency moves

The Minnesota Vikings were active in free agency by signing offensive tackles Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers, but Pro Football Focus doesn’t like the moves.

Coming into free agency, the Minnesota Vikings seemed focused on doing everything they could to improve upon the struggling offensive line that was a huge liability to the team during the 2016 NFL season.

Minnesota was able to lock down one of the top available offensive tackles on day 1 of free agency, announcing the signing of Riley Reiff and then adding another tackle, Mike Remmers, on day 2.

While both of these signings will add stability and depth to the offensive line, they have been met with mixed results from fans of the team as well as sites that grade player transactions and performances.

One of the most respected sites for analysis is Pro Football Focus. They have been keeping track of each of the major transactions around the league on their website and have graded each of them based on player ability, fit with the team, contract value, and more. Sadly, the Vikings moves did not fare well.

PFF looked at the 5 year/$58.8 million contract with $26.3 million guaranteed that Riley Reiff signed and gave it a grade of D. Here is what they had to say:

"“Riley Reiff’s career baseline is certainly far higher than anybody else on Minnesota’s roster who could play tackle for the team in 2017, but he is trending the wrong direction and coming off the worst season of his career. Pass protection is the weaker area of his game, and his four starting seasons have averaged 46 total pressures surrendered, but he has typically been (until 2016) a solid run-blocker. He should prove to be an upgrade for the Vikings, but they have paid huge money to secure it.”"

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The grading site was even less kind to the deal that Mike Remmers signed with the Vikings. Receiving a grade of F, PFF did not at all like what Minnesota did with this signing.

"“Mike Remmers was put in a tough spot in 2016, playing left tackle when he had struggled enough on the right side. At RT, the season before, he had actually been average enough — with good and bad games — before being taken to pieces in the Super Bowl by Von Miller. In that game, he surrendered three sacks and seven hurries and may have been the single biggest reason for the defeat. The Vikings have paid him very strong money to try and rediscover his best play from that 2015 campaign, which consists really of five games.”"

The main consensus among the criticism of PFF is that the Vikings overpaid for the services of these players. While that may be true, offensive linemen as a whole were grossly overpaid during free agency this year, with some even landing record-breaking contracts.

It is likely the situation came down to either losing out on more potential linemen or overpaying for them. Considering Minnesota’s desperation, it is better to open the wallet a little wider than go into the 2017 season unprepared.

Next: Minnesota Vikings free agency tracker

The positive thing is that the Minnesota Vikings did their best in free agency to improve upon their biggest weakness. Whether or not these contracts come back to haunt the team will be revealed over the years, but for now it is more proof that the Vikings want to win as soon as possible.