It was reported early this morning that the New York Jets will be hosting veteran offensive tackle Riley Reiff on a visit today. Reiff was a first-round selection of the Detroit Lions in 2012. He spent the first five years of his career with the Lions. In 2017, Reiff signed with the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent and spent four years there.
Free-agent OT Riley Reiff, the former Lions’ 2013 first-round pick who spent last season with the Bengals, is visiting today with the New York Jets, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 9, 2022
In March of 2021, the Vikings released him with one year left on his contract. Reiff then went on to sign with the 2021 AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals.
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Breaking down Riley Reiff’s game:
Reiff has the necessary size for an offensive tackle at 6-foot-5 and 313 pounds. He has 10 years of NFL experience. Throughout his 10-year career, Reiff has started 139 games. He has played 8,727 NFL snaps. He started in 12 games for the Bengals last year before an injury ended his season. Reiff finished the 2021 season with 711 snaps played.
Following last year, Reiff does now provide positional versatility to go along with his experience. For most of his career, he played at left tackle. The Bengals had Reiff play at right tackle last season, and he held up well considering his lack of experience at the position over his long career. Over 711 snaps last year, per PFF, Reiff only committed one penalty and allowed four sacks earning a solid grade of 67.3.
Since the conclusion of the draft, when looking at the Jets roster on paper, one of the bigger concerns was a lack of veteran offensive tackle depth. To see this Reiff update is not totally surprising. It is great to see Joe Douglas continue to value the offensive line in front of Zach Wilson. The loss of Morgan Moses this offseason in free agency created a need. It was around this time last year when the Jets signed Moses to be their veteran third swing offensive tackle. He ended up starting 16 games and provided solid consistency.
As Reiff enters year 11 of his career, he will turn 34 in December. At the moment, the Jets have two great starting offensive tackles most are confident in with George Fant and Mekhi Becton. Rookie fourth-round pick Max Mitchell is someone with a potentially exciting future. He may have to develop as a rookie, though. Adding Reiff could provide invaluable offensive tackle depth for the Jets in 2022.