What are the Minnesota Vikings going to do with Riley Reiff?

As the Minnesota Vikings head into the 2020 NFL Draft, what is the team’s plan for current starting left tackle Riley Reiff?

Given what the salary cap situation of the Minnesota Vikings was entering the current offseason, they needed to make some big decisions. So the Vikings released cornerback Xavier Rhodes and defensive tackle Linval Joseph, which did not come as a shock.

One surprise though is that Minnesota has not released left tackle Riley Reiff yet or attempted to restructure his current contract with the team.

It looks like the Vikings might be waiting to see what will happen in this week’s NFL Draft before they decide on Reiff. They also have been rumored to be interested in trading for Washington Redskins left tackle Trent Williams, so that could change things too.

If Minnesota ends up keeping Reiff around for next season, there has been some talk that the team could even move him inside to guard.

In 2018, the Vikings attempted this with Mike Remmers when they moved him from right tackle to right guard. But it didn’t work out and it turned out to be a disaster for Remmers.

Moving Reiff to guard could pan out for the Vikings next season. But even if it does not, he likely won’t be any worse than what Minnesota has seen from Tom Compton and Pat Elflein on the interior of their offensive line during the recent past.

If the Vikings end up selecting a left tackle in one of the early rounds of this year’s NFL Draft, it would probably be best to move Reiff to guard, but not at his current salary. If Minnesota trades for Williams, the team would be better off just moving on from Reiff completely even if he says he is willing to take a pay cut.

Currently, the Vikings have around $12.3 million in salary-cap space. For next season, Reiff is set to take up $13.2 million of Minnesota’s salary cap.

As for Williams, he is set to become a free agent in 2021 and this year, he has a cap hit of $14.5 million.

The seven-time Pro Bowler will be 32-years-old when the 2020 season starts and didn’t play a snap for Washington last year. But Williams should still continue to be one of the best left tackles in the NFL wherever he lands this offseason.

In 2017, Reiff had a very good campaign with the Vikings. But then he went on to have a rough time in 2018 and last season he just looked decent at best.

The question is not just whether Reiff will be on Minnesota’s roster or not when the 2020 season starts, it is also who the team’s starting left tackle will be.

Will it be Reiff? Williams? Austin Jackson? Josh Jones? Even the Vikings don’t have an answer for this right now.