Vikings Approached Riley Reiff About Restructuring Contract, Could Cut Him

Reiff could be cut if he declines to accept a restructured deal. The Vikings need cap space.

With less than two weeks remaining until the start of the 2020 season, the Vikings might be getting ready for a major shake-up of their offensive line. In an effort to create cap space after trading for Yannick Ngakoue, the team has approached veteran left tackle Riley Reiff about restructuring his contract, as first reported by The Athletic's Chad Graff.

Reiff's $13.2 million cap hit for 2020 is the second-highest on the team, trailing only Kirk Cousins. If he were to be traded or cut, the Vikings would create $11 million in cap space this year and $11.75 million in 2021. It sounds like cutting Reiff is a serious possibility if he doesn't agree to a restructured deal.

Hearing the Vikings have gone to LT Riley Reiff about re-structuring his contract. If he’s not willing, they may cut him to save more than $8M in cap space.

Sounds like it may not have been a fluke that Brian O’Neill was at LT at practice yesterday.

— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) August 31, 2020

According to ESPN's Courtney Cronin, the Vikings "gave [Reiff] the day to think it over before they would opt to release him." 

Reiff didn't practice yesterday in what appeared to be his second veteran's day off of training camp. Now, it seems like there may have been more to it than that. KSTP's Darren Wolfson is reporting that Reiff isn't currently at the facility as he thinks over the Vikings' ultimatum of sorts.

All offseason long, moving on from Reiff or at least restructuring his contract has been one of the most obvious avenues for the Vikings to create cap space. But there was never any indication they were considering doing so up to this point. Offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak even gave him a major vote of confidence in early August by making it clear that Reiff would remain the team's starting left tackle this season.

"I think Riley played really well for us last year," Kubiak said. "I think we can do some things offensively and me as a play-caller to help all our players and help Riley more, from that standpoint. I'm a big Riley Reiff fan. I love him as a person, a player and a leader on our team. Expecting Riley to have a great year."

What Does Riley Reiff's Future with the Vikings Look Like?

And yet, all of a sudden, here we are. The Vikings clearly need cap space, as they're down to less than $1 million after agreeing to a one-year, $12 million contract for Ngakoue. Reiff is an average to slightly above-average tackle who is being paid like a top-15 player at the position, which is why a move earlier in the offseason would've made a lot of sense.

But cutting your left tackle 13 days before the season starts? 13 days before Za'Darius Smith and the Green Bay Packers come to town for a game with huge implications? That kind of seems like a recipe for disaster.

With Reiff and backup LT Rashod Hill missing Sunday's practice, Brian O'Neill slid over to left tackle. There's been plenty of speculation about a move back to that side for O'Neill, the budding star who played LT at Pitt. The common response to that has been 'why mess with a good thing?' O'Neill is on an excellent trajectory through two seasons of playing right tackle in the NFL, so a move back to the left could come with some bumps in the road.

With O'Neill on the left side, Oli Udoh stepped up as the first-team right tackle. The second-year player from Elon has had a fantastic camp and might be working himself into the Vikings' future plans, which creates some uncertainty over where second-round rookie Ezra Cleveland fits into the puzzle going forward. Still, it's not clear if O'Neill and Udoh would be the starting tackles in 2020 if Reiff were cut, or if the veteran Hill would start at one of the spots.

It sounds like we'll find out pretty soon whether Reiff accepts the restructure or not. If he doesn't – and gets cut – the Vikings are going to have to make some decisions and get their offensive line ready to go in just under two weeks.

Update: Per Cronin, Reiff isn't expected to be at practice this afternoon and has a deadline of tomorrow to make his decision.

Vikings will practice today at 2 PM but I’m told Riley Reiff isn’t expected to be there. He was in the building earlier this morning and it sounds like the Vikings have given him a deadline of tomorrow to decide whether he’ll take a restructured deal or be released.

— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) August 31, 2020

Update, part two: ProFootballTalk has reported that Reiff expects to be cut. 

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