Should Chicago Bears consider re-signing Riley Reiff?

The Chicago Bears have a plethora of free-agent decisions to make this offseason, and one of them is Riley Reiff. The team signed Reiff to a one-year deal that wound up being about $3M in salary.

Reiff was only signed in late July, but he still wound up starting in 10 games for the team and played in 534 snaps, all at right tackle. Considering he was a starter last season it is worth questioning whether or not he will be back in 2023.

Should Chicago Bears sign Riley Reiff?

The first thought should be yes considering he is better than what the team has. They saw Larry Borom start for the first seven weeks, and immediately saw Riley Reiff as an upgrade when he got in. Beyond that, Alex Leatherwood was quickly benched and could not get to 30 snaps.

So, they need Reiff right now. At the right price, it is better to have the lineman to not have the depth.

Why Chicago Bears do not need to re-sign Riley Reiff

The Bears will not have to re-sign Reiff, though. At least not yet. Reiff is going to be 35 years old this season. There is a reason he was available in August before training camp, and there is a good shot he will be there again this season.

Reiff is a veteran fill-in, and an emergency player that teams will call after they realized they still have a hole on their roster. Reiff is someone you can go to, but not someone you want to go to.

The Chicago Bears should have their eyes set a bit bigger. Reiff is better than Borom, but Borom is signed for cheap, and as depth, it is not a huge difference. If the Bears cannot find someone better than Reiff with all of their assets and additional draft picks this year it would be stunning.

This will allow Reiff to sign for another team that is in a bad spot cap-wise and needs a cheap season right tackle play to get them by. Fans should be fine with the work that Reiff did, but understand that it would not be a good thing if Reiff was penciled in to start again next year.