Listen Detroit, the franchise tag for Ndamukong Suh is absolutely ridiculous. Almost $27 million in cap dollars tied up in one player. “one”!
What’s wrong with Detroit fans and falling in love with guys that have a name? I don’t get it. A month ago I wrote a story gauging Suh’s game impact and compared it with the money he would make and it doesn’t equate. (Link here with old story)
Agree with me or not, you don’t have too. The Lions also still owe this man $6 million dollarsfrom money already pushed back from restructuring in previous years on this years cap. It’s just funny from a fan base that has mantras like blue collar or Detroit vs. EVERYONE to come off so desperate and needy for one player. But what should I expect from the same fan base that turned sour on Sergei Fedorov yet immortalized Brandon Inge.
Ask yourself, Is Detroit Ndamukong Suh away from the NFC North division crown? Don’t fool yourself, the answer is no. With the answer being no, how can you win a Super Bowl? Suh isn’t Reggie White, he isn’t Lawrence Taylor, and he isn’t J.J. Watt.
How many division winners had Defensive Tackle the highest paid position on their defense? Yet alone the highest paid player on the whole team?
So apply the franchise tag to him and where do the Detroit Lions go? They are essentially the same team that wasn’t good enough last year. They’d still have an Offensive Line with an average Left Tackle, a hole at Left Guard, and a hole at Right Tackle. Should we as fans trust the Lions’ ability to draft? They abuse the best player available strategy. Do the Lions have the moxie to Franchise Suh and play the expensive game of chicken while trying to negotiate an extension with him?
Do they sign Suh long term?
Signing Suh is kicking the can down the road. It would have to be a specially structured deal that allowed for more money later and have Calvin Johnson do a restructure now and prevent the Lions from getting out from under Megatron’s deal when it’s time to. I’ll use Baltimore’s Defensive Tackle Ngata deal he signed in 2012 (4-years, $48.5 Million with a $25 million dollar signing bonus and $27.9 million guaranteed), the Ravens were in a position to load Ngata’s deal upfront and now even coming off a stellar season he could become a cap causality at age 31. Ngata stands to be $16 million toward the cap but can be cut for $7.5 million. What is my point you might ask? The Lions will never be able to do that at the end of Suh’s. The Lions just recently got caught with Chris Houston not being able to pull his end of the deal. What happens in 3 years when a 31 year old Ndamukong Suh isn’t worth his contract but the way his contract is written he is a $20 million dollar cap hit?
I ask all these questions because they’re legitimate.
So Detroit, go ahead and keep Suh and you will be forced to keep Rob Sims on the O-line and maybe get to add one piece via free agency. Better pray for an awesome draft, but do me a favor and reflect on the drafts from 2011, 2012, 2014.
The question I’m asked over and over is “well… well… hey smart guy, how are you replacing Suh? He makes everyone better, he is double teamed EVERY down, he plays every snap!”
All good points on the surface, but let’s look deeper. The Lions would have cap room to maneuver and guess what position has quite a few players available? Defensive Tackle, but wait, D-Tackle is the new hotness, mostly in Detroit. You can’t have a successful long term winning team paying all that money to Defensive Tackle and not afford to pay for elite talent at the positions that require premium money. Truth is Suh is a fine player but become overvalued by his fan base. While he does play a lot (852 of 1045 snaps or 81.5%), he is doubled teamed a lot but every decent Defensive Tackle in football is. He doesn’t free up Ziggy Ansah with his double teams, that’s a myth. How many times have you seen a Guard kick out to a pass rusher? Here is a perfect example to sum up Suh.
I use this play as the perfect example, Suh is initially blocked out of the play, it doesn’t get into the backfield until the 5-6 second mark and then it is Romo’s poor decision of running into him to kill the play. Yet Suh sycophants look at this and don’t see it for what it was.
What to do with the money?
This offseason is going to see DT Terrance Knighton, DT Jared Odrick, DT Damon Harrison (RFA), DT Stephen Paea, DT Dan Williams, DT Henry Melton (coming off injury), DT Ahtyba Rubin, DT Kendall Langford all be free agents. They are all around the same age as Suh and I didn’t even mention Detroit’s own fellow Free Agent Defensive Tackle Nick Fairley. That’s eight solid names of guys that are going to cost a fractions of the money Suh will command. This also puts Detroit in play for an upgrade at Corner Back with players like Kareem Jackon, Antonio Cromartie, Byron Maxwell or do you want a Offensive Guard like Mike Iupati, Clint Boling, and James Carpenter or maybe Detroit could take a run at Buffalo Defensive End Jerry Hughes.
You could legit piece together a new player at Defensive Tackle while upgrading Defensive Back and Guard, if you do it right you might be able to re-sign Fairley.
Don’t get me wrong, it is my opinion that #90 is a great player. The guy is top-15 defensive player in football and top 2 or 3 at his position if not 1st. The guy creates havoc and is force to gameplan against. And yes, I know the numbers, Detroit was the #2 Defense last year with Suh, well to that I say what happen the previous seasons? I think it’s convenient for Lions fans to praise Defensive Coordinator Teryl Austin in season but in the offseason give too much credit to Suh’s impact. It’s up to Lions GM Martin Mayhew to make the right moves and give his coaches Caldwell and Austin the bodies needed to plug the hole. If that happens Detroit will stay top-10 in Defense and with opened up funds, upgrades on offense via Free Agency can upgrade the O-Line and land a Running Back in the draft. So at the end of the day, I’d feel better with a top-10 defense and a top-10 offense instead of the #2 Defense with the 22nd Offense.