Suh Continues To Strengthen Case For Monster Contract
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - With the 2014 regular season more than halfway complete, Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh enjoys more leverage than ever as he approaches free agency.
Pro Football Focus ranks Suh as the best defensive tackle in the game with an overall grade of 23.2, including a rating of 12.5 in pass rushing and 13.5 in run defense. He is the only player on the list with double-digit marks in both those categories. Suh also leads all defensive tackles with 25 quarterback hurries and ranks third with five quarterback hits - three of which came Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.
Suh had his best game of the season to date against Miami, logging three tackles for loss, including a sack. PFF gave Suh a rating of 7.0 for the game. The highest rating in a game he had received previously was 4.5.
"He was reckless in there, and I think right from the start, which he does every single game," Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said. "He's a force to be reckoned with. He's a guy that has power and speed, and he's smart, and you see all of that come into play out there. He knows what to expect out there from the opponent and does a great job of countering it.
"That whole front, I think you can see, they were swarming to the football there in that first quarter," Caldwell added. "It was unlike anything that I've seen in a while, particularly the way they got after it, and they had to. It was a good football team."
Suh's dominance cannot be questioned, but there is less of a consensus about whether a defensive tackle merits the extraordinary amount of money that Suh and his agent Jimmy Sexton will likely demand.
Gerald McCoy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL when he received a seven-year deal worth $95 million that includes $51.5 million guaranteed. Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt set the bar for all players on his side of the ball when he inked a six-year contract for $100 million. The deal includes $51.8 million guaranteed, which is a record for a defensive player.
Caldwell declined to say Monday whether the Lions defense would be as successful as it has been this season - still first in the NFL in points allowed per game and in yards allowed per game - if the team did not have Suh. Instead Caldwell talked at length about individual instances of Suh's impact Sunday against Miami.
"Let me just tell you the first four, five plays, it's pretty obvious that they single-blocked him on one, he ends up coming down the line, making a huge play," Caldwell said. "The next play he's a factor, and that whole first series, he was all over the place. The next series they double-teamed him, and I think that's – early on they wanted to single-block him, and I think that's something we saw it when we were preparing for him when I was with the opposition. I don't think there's any secret. I don't think there's anything different about him.
"This is the way he's played ever since he's been in this league," Caldwell continued. "The guy is an unusual physical specimen that knows how to play the game, he's highly disruptive, and he's going to make you better because of the fact that obviously there's some great things that he does that's going to afford some other guys single blocks, and then they when they get single blocks, they've got to show up, and I think we have guys that do that."
The Lions tabled contract extension talks with Suh before the start of the season, and some have suggested the pause in negotiations means Suh wants to be the highest-paid defensive player in the game. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen, but midway through the season, it certainly does not look impossible.