Ever since their hotly-contested Week 3 matchup, the Minnesota Vikings and the Tennessee Titans have gone in very different directions. The Vikings have fallen to a laughable 1-5, and have found themselves in the position of being an NFL chop shop. They need to pull things apart, get what they can for them and look towards the future.
The Titans, meanwhile, have surged to 5-1 and seem to have all the pieces in place to make a deep postseason run. Or at least they did, up until Week 5 when they lost their stud left tackle Taylor Lewan to an injury.
Enter Rick Spielman.
There are players who Spielman will surely hear offers on, and then there are players who he should be picking up the phone to call other teams about. Riley Reiff is in the second camp, and he just makes too much sense for the Tennessee Titans.
Derrick Henry has established himself as the league’s preeminent muscle hamster, and now Ryan Tannehill has come into his own in his second season in Nashville and owns an 83.3 QBR through six games.
Tannehill, a guy who most wrote off, was drafted No. 8 overall in 2012 by the Miami Dolphins approximately 17 rebuilds ago. Through a year and a half in Tennessee, he looks like the guy everyone expected him to be when the Dolphins threw $100 million at him. At this point, it’s become extremely clear that his failure to become a franchise quarterback after six seasons in South Florida is more of an indictment on the Dolphins organization, than it was Tannehill’s abilities. Not surprisingly, Adam Gase was his last coach in Miami, if you needed any more evidence.
Tannehill has gone from Derrick Henry’s supporting cast to in the running for team MVP, and the Titans have become more balanced as a result. This is no longer the spartan running team with a great defense that upset the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens in the postseason last year. They’re letting Tannehill throw the ball, and with Lewan on injured reserve, they need a left tackle to protect him if they’re gonna make a deep run.
Spielman’s motivations here should be multifaceted.
One, it’s a lost season. It’s important that he gets value for aging players who don’t fit the team’s long-term vision. Had the Vikings beaten the Titans, and then followed that up with wins over Seattle and Atlanta, we’d be having a different conversation and Kirk Cousins’s protection would be of the utmost importance for a 4-2 football team.
But that’s not the case.
Two, we need to see what Ezra Cleveland is capable of right now. One of the worst parts of being a Vikings fan is the constant state of will they or won’t they develop when it comes to their offensive linemen. Cleveland was drafted as a tackle, and as much as it’s exhilarating to see him get on the field as a guard, the sooner we can learn whether or not he can hang with the big boys at his natural position, the better off this franchise will be.
I’m not saying we’re gonna know if he’s a stud left tackle by season’s end, but understanding if he’s worth the investment at that position will greatly help the Vikings make subsequent decisions this offseason.
Although he grew up in South Dakota and went to Iowa, Reiff isn’t the kind of player who sells tickets or drives a ratings bump. He’s not Adam Thielen or Harrison Smith. The Titans just got a good look at him, and should feel confident in his ability to adapt to a system change mid-season.
If Rick can get the Titans on the phone, this deal seems like a no-brainer for both sides.
