Vikings looking to restructure Riley Reiff for salary cap relief
By Adam Carlson
The Minnesota Vikings enter the 2021 NFL season with some big needs to fill and not a lot of resources. Most of the new faces to the team will likely come through the draft or undrafted free agents since the salary cap is a big issue for the purple and gold.
In fact, the Vikings need to make some moves in order to get under the salary cap before the start of the league year. The team has a few options before the March 17 deadline, but one of the most often discussed possibilities has been looking to offensive tackle Riley Reiff.
The blindside blocker for Kirk Cousins is entering the final season of his five-year, $58.75M contract where he is set to cost $17.45M against the salary cap. Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press is reporting that Minnesota will be looking to restructure Reiff’s contract in order to make more salary cap space available.
#Vikings hoping to restructure Riley Reiff's contract & keep him at left tackle. If that doesn't happen, candidates then become Ezra Cleveland and Brian O'Neill Cleveland could work cheap for a few years but O'Neill would command more on an extension if he goes from right to left
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) March 6, 2021
Despite some horrendous play from several offensive linemen during the 2020 NFL season, Riley Rieff played at a high level and was one of the team’s few bright spots in the trenches last season.
What are the Vikings’ options at offensive tackle other than Reiff?
Minnesota has a solid group of offensive tackles available this year. If they can have Riley Reiff and Brian O’Neill return as the bookends on the offensive line while Ezra Cleveland gains experience, they could move on from Reiff following the coming year. Cleveland’s struggles while playing at guard in 2020 indicate he likely isn’t ready to make the jump at the moment, but still has shown flashes of potential that he could be a long-term offensive tackle for the future.
Another option is moving Brian O’Neill over to left tackle and playing Cleveland at right tackle. This would be less risky since O’Neill has looked good and right tackle and has the potential to transition well to the left side. But, again, the team would have to rely on Cleveland to step up on the right side.
The Minnesota Vikings and Riley Reiff should be able to come to some sort of compromise when it comes to moving the money around in his deal to free up some salary cap space. If that doesn’t happen, the team will need to make some serious adjustments before the 2021 NFL season.