Report: Riley Reiff tells teammates that he expects to be released

Welcome back to The Daily Reiff, everyone, as it appears we have another development in the story concerning the Minnesota Vikings’ starting. . .for now. . .left tackle.

Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk is reporting that Riley Reiff has told his Vikings’ teammates that he expects to be cut by the team. No indicator as to when that might happen, but given our earlier report that the Vikings had apparently given Reiff until tomorrow to decide whether or not he wanted to restructure his contract, I’m guessing it won’t be too long until the official news comes down.

It seems to be a bit of a strange move to let your team’s starting left tackle go less than two weeks before the regular season opener, particularly when a team with the pass rush ability of the Green Bay Packers is coming to town, but it appears that’s what the purple are on the verge of doing.

If Sunday’s practice is any indication, this means that Brian O’Neill, the Vikings’ budding star at right tackle, will be moving over to left tackle to protect Kirk Cousins’ blind side, with second-year tackle Oli Udoh stepping into O’Neill’s vacated position at right tackle. Honestly, as several people on social media have pointed out, this probably isn’t a move that the Vikings make if they’re not very excited about Udoh’s progress. It appears we’re going to get to see whether or not that excitement is warranted.

The release of Reiff should free up about $11 million in cap space for the Vikings, who have just about no cap room left after the trade for Yannick Ngakoue that they made on Sunday.

Again, Pro Football Talk is reporting that Riley Reiff has told his teammates that he expects the Vikings to release him. If and when that actually happens, we will let you know about it here.