The Minnesota Vikings bolstered their pass rush with the weekend trade for Jaguars pass rush specialist Yannick Ngakoue. Giving up just two middle-round picks to acquire Ngakoue, who has 37.5 sacks in four seasons, made headlines and got Vikings fans feeling great about their team.
There was a larger cost, however. Due to their salary cap situation, the Vikings nearly lost starting left tackle Riley Reiff. Even after Ngakoue agreed to take less money, the Vikings still couldn’t afford to pay Reiff the $10.9 million in 2020 the former Lions right tackle is due.
Reiff initially balked at a contract restructure. He even said goodbye to his teammates on Monday, and Vikings reporters were thrust into action to determine who would fill his sizable shoes once Reiff was gone.
In the end, Reiff realized that he wasn’t going to get as much on the open market at this odd juncture as the Vikings were offering in a restructure, so the veteran has agreed to lower his value and stick with the familiar offense in Minnesota. Reiff has largely been the same player for the Vikings he was in Detroit — acceptable but steadily unspectacular.
That’s the price of acquiring premium talents like Ngakoue. It effectively rules out giving an extension to standout safety Anthony Harris or running back Dalvin Cook this year. Keeping them after this year, as well as re-signing Ngakoue, will require some tough choices in the next offseason, too.
It’s an example of why the Lions were not really players in the Ngakoue trade sweepstakes. Acquiring Ngakoue and committing to pay him some $20 million per year would mean the Lions could not afford to pay left tackle Taylor Decker, a better player than Reiff, the nice new extension he got from the team. It would have forced the Lions to choose between Decker, WR Kenny Golladay and Ngakoue, barring some other major cuts.
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