He looked so bad in training camp they had him in a guard rotation by the time of his injury, it's not like this was a bad signing becausde he got hurt.
Maybe-not totally clear why they had him playing guard (was it to develop depth at guard because he couldn’t hack it at tackle-you’re assuming the later and that would be my guess too but the Pats aren’t super transparent about this stuff).
I just look at what Bill does. He shifted Reiff to guard even when their tackle depth was so bad with Anderson's injury they brought in two guys close to the start of the season and carried 11 OL on the roster (when historically they've averaged 8 linemen on the 53). If he thought Reiff could play tackle, he'd be playing tackle. He got tackle money.
The tackle market was basically 2 top-tier guys (OBj and McGlinchey) and then a VERY steep dropoff in talent. How steep? These guys rated old friend Isaiah Wynn as the #6 OT free agent: https://walterfootball.com/freeagents2023ot.php
Well except Reiff is hurt and they brought in two tackles after Reiff got hurt and they went through roster machinations partially in order to retain eligibility for Reiff later in the season all of which suggests the Pats think he can still play a little (and possibly still play tackle).
So Reiff got hurt after he was already playing guard and then they brought in... two tackles to replace someone that they had at guard? And that's no indictment on how they viewed Reiff at tackle? You can argue it's an indication on how they viewed all of their options at RT and not just Reiff, but they had Sidy Sow, a college guard, playing tackle and not Reiff right before he got hurt. I think it's very easy to say at the very least they got less than what they paid for with him. Kinda reminds me of the Shaun Ellis contract at this point.
Bringing in two tackles after he got hurt suggests to me that they think he can play tackle. Ymmv. The big assumption you’re sticking with is he can’t play tackle and I am not so sure. Like, maybe?
