Looks like my Vikings were unable to come to terms with a deal to restructure former Hawk Riley Reiff's contract for salary cap purposes, and released him yesterday. Too bad because their offensive line was poor last year, and Riley had a solid year and was one of the few bright spots. Hopefully he will get a nice contract from another team that needs OL help and has the cap space to pay him close to what he's worth. One interesting note from The Athletic story below is that they mention that Minnesota could go after Austin Blythe to fill one of their guard spots on the line, which I would love to see happen.
The first major domino of the Minnesota Vikings’ offseason was tipped over Wednesday afternoon when the team released starting left tackle Riley Reiff. The 32-year-old had been a mainstay on the offensive line, serving as a captain while protecting the quarterback’s blindside the last four seasons.
The transaction saves the Vikings more than $11 million against the cap and comes on the same day the team found out that its salary cap will be $187 million (the league total was set Wednesday at $182.5 million, but Minnesota also rolled over $4.5 in cap space. Our Vikings writers — Chad Graff and Arif Hasan — got together to break down how this move came to be, what it means and what comes next.
Chad: Well, that’s certainly a move I didn’t see coming. Earlier this offseason, the Vikings paid Reiff a $1 million performance bonus that he only missed because he was on the COVID-19/reserve list in Week 17. It was a move that hurt their 2021 cap, but one they thought would yield enough goodwill to kickstart conversations for an extension that would keep Reiff with the Vikings while lowering his cap hit for the coming season. As of two weeks ago, sources said, the Vikings were in discussions with Reiff’s camp about a new deal. The Vikings made clear that they wanted Reiff to stay with the team.
But talks stalled. It’s unclear at this point whether the Vikings felt Reiff was demanding too much or whether Reiff felt the franchise wasn’t offering enough. But it’s worth noting something we’ve reported since the season ended — Reiff wasn’t about to give the Vikings what he felt like would’ve been yet another discount. He was upset about the position the Vikings put him in at the end of August after they traded for Yannick Ngakoue. To fit Ngakoue under the cap, the Vikings told Reiff that he needed to take a pay cut or they’d release him. At that time, just a week before the season was going to begin, there would have been no market for Reiff to make the kind of money he believed he was worth since teams already had their rosters set. After initially thinking he’d accept being cut, Reiff changed his mind and returned to the team.
The Vikings knew they had work to do to get back in Reiff’s good graces, which is part of why they paid the $1 million bonus. But since then, Reiff watched two other offensive tackles get franchise-tagged, which earns them around $14 million, but it also took two of the best linemen off the free-agent market. Now Reiff gets to test the market on his own terms.
Arif, are you as surprised that they cut Reiff? And what does this mean for the team’s salary cap with free agency beginning next week?
Arif: I guess I was a little less surprised, given that — as you mentioned — Reiff nearly walked away from the deal the Vikings offered him last summer to get Ngakoue under the cap. With so much pressure to get under the cap, they needed to make a move with Reiff, and this time it seemed like Reiff figured his market value was going to be better than what the Vikings could offer. After the excellent year he had, it’s hard to blame him.
The first major domino of the Minnesota Vikings’ offseason was tipped over Wednesday afternoon when the team released starting left tackle Riley Reiff. The 32-year-old had been a mainstay on the offensive line, serving as a captain while protecting the quarterback’s blindside the last four seasons.
The transaction saves the Vikings more than $11 million against the cap and comes on the same day the team found out that its salary cap will be $187 million (the league total was set Wednesday at $182.5 million, but Minnesota also rolled over $4.5 in cap space. Our Vikings writers — Chad Graff and Arif Hasan — got together to break down how this move came to be, what it means and what comes next.
Chad: Well, that’s certainly a move I didn’t see coming. Earlier this offseason, the Vikings paid Reiff a $1 million performance bonus that he only missed because he was on the COVID-19/reserve list in Week 17. It was a move that hurt their 2021 cap, but one they thought would yield enough goodwill to kickstart conversations for an extension that would keep Reiff with the Vikings while lowering his cap hit for the coming season. As of two weeks ago, sources said, the Vikings were in discussions with Reiff’s camp about a new deal. The Vikings made clear that they wanted Reiff to stay with the team.
But talks stalled. It’s unclear at this point whether the Vikings felt Reiff was demanding too much or whether Reiff felt the franchise wasn’t offering enough. But it’s worth noting something we’ve reported since the season ended — Reiff wasn’t about to give the Vikings what he felt like would’ve been yet another discount. He was upset about the position the Vikings put him in at the end of August after they traded for Yannick Ngakoue. To fit Ngakoue under the cap, the Vikings told Reiff that he needed to take a pay cut or they’d release him. At that time, just a week before the season was going to begin, there would have been no market for Reiff to make the kind of money he believed he was worth since teams already had their rosters set. After initially thinking he’d accept being cut, Reiff changed his mind and returned to the team.
The Vikings knew they had work to do to get back in Reiff’s good graces, which is part of why they paid the $1 million bonus. But since then, Reiff watched two other offensive tackles get franchise-tagged, which earns them around $14 million, but it also took two of the best linemen off the free-agent market. Now Reiff gets to test the market on his own terms.
Arif, are you as surprised that they cut Reiff? And what does this mean for the team’s salary cap with free agency beginning next week?
Arif: I guess I was a little less surprised, given that — as you mentioned — Reiff nearly walked away from the deal the Vikings offered him last summer to get Ngakoue under the cap. With so much pressure to get under the cap, they needed to make a move with Reiff, and this time it seemed like Reiff figured his market value was going to be better than what the Vikings could offer. After the excellent year he had, it’s hard to blame him.
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