Opinion: Lions Should Let Suh Go If They Would Have To Franchise Him

By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

CBS DETROIT - Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, the best player on one of the league's best defenses this season, may have played his last game in Honolulu blue and silver.

As a free agent, Suh can choose to take a long-term deal from the Lions or take one from another team interested in his services. The Lions do have a recourse if Suh wants to leave; they can use the franchise tag, essentially forcing him to stay for one more year and spending $36 million to do so.

Would it be wise for the Lions to franchise Suh? Would it be wise for them to sign him to a long-term deal? What follows is a discussion of Suh's individual production, of the production of his teammates on the defensive line, and of several other factors that contributed to the remarkable success of the Detroit defense this season.

A four-time All-Pro, Suh might be the second-best defensive player in the NFL behind Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt. While Pro Football Focus rates Suh as the third-best defensive tackle in the NFL behind Aaron Donald and Gerald McCoy, the site shows that Suh played 875 snaps, many more than Donald (724) and McCoy (688). Suh's conditioning and durability - he has never missed a game for injury - have allowed for consistently high production.

Among defensive tackles, Suh ranked first in quarterback hits, first in quarterback hurries, first in stops, fourth in tackles and fifth in sacks. In Detroit's wild-card playoff game loss to the Dallas Cowboys, Suh recorded two more sacks, including one in which he wrestled down Tony Romo one-handed by hanging onto the quarterback's jersey.

As coaches always point out, the attention that opposing defenses dedicate to Suh opens up opportunities for his teammates. Suh's sack total increased in 2014, and so did that of several of his fellow linemen.

The most dramatic production came for defensive ends Jason Jones, who missed most of 2013 because of injury, and George Johnson, who spent 2013 on the practice squad of the Minnesota Vikings before they released him in October. Jones got five sacks this season, and Johnson had six. Defensive tackles Andre Fluellen and C.J. Mosley did not have any sacks in 2013, but Fluellen had two this year, and Mosley had two and a half.

While Suh's presence helped create opportunities for those individuals to make plays, they deserve credit for executing, too, and their production should be discounting when evaluating why the line had the success it did this season.

Fluellen, Mosley and Johnson are all free agents, and so are Nick Fairley and Darryl Tapp. Even if the Lions were not pursuing Suh in earnest, they would almost certainly not be able to bring back all five.

One other note - the defensive line enjoyed, for the most part, remarkable health this season.

That unit, of course, does not operate in a vacuum. Detroit's secondary looked much better this season, thanks in part to the improvement of young cornerback Darius Slay, the addition of veteran safety James Ihedigbo and the continued production of Pro Bowl selection Glover Quin. The linebackers, with a stellar season by DeAndre Levy and an impressive job by Tahir Whitehead, filling in for the injured Stephen Tulloch, also played well.

Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, in his first season in that position, made a significant impact as well. The job he did with designing the defense and preparing the unit each week has garnered enough respect around the league that he is reportedly interviewing with a number of teams this week about their head coaching vacancies.

So at this point we have established that credit for the defense's production this year should also go to - in addition to Suh - his teammates on the defensive line, to the relative lack of injuries on that unit, to the other groups of the defense, and to Austin.

In 2015, as many as five of Suh's teammates on the defensive line may be gone. Austin may be gone. Injuries may happen.

If re-signing Suh would guarantee the defense perform as well next season as it did last season, I would recommend they keep him whether they needed to franchise him or whether they could sign him to a long-term contact.

Unfortunately for the Lions, bringing back Suh will not guarantee a repeat of this season's success on defense.

In some ways, signing Suh is the safe move because it is easy to explain keeping him; the defense carried Detroit this season, and Suh is unquestionably the linchpin of the defense.

A fantastic defense did not ultimately get the Lions to their goal, however. Mayhew himself said the team needs more talented players, and he recited the truism that better players get paid more. How will the Lions afford the help they need to be better for next year and years in the future if they add another player who takes up a significant portion of the salary cap?

Mayhew said Detroit will keep all options on the table regarding Suh, suggesting the team could franchise him. Mayhew also noted Suh wants to be in Detroit, however. From what Mayhew says, it appears both sides want a long-term deal.

While franchising Suh seems a recipe for financial disaster, signing him to a long-term, back-loaded deal could allow the Lions to keep the player they covet and provide them just enough cap room to shore up weaknesses with mid-level or under-the-radar free agents.

Mayhew and the rest of the Detroit front office have undoubtedly delved into all these factors and thousands more, considering all the options. Evidently, they believe keeping Suh - a once-in-a-generation player in the prime of his career - is the best course of action.

As observed earlier, even if Suh returns in 2015, the defense could look significantly different for a variety of reasons. If he wants to stay, however, it makes sense to keep him. If he does not want to sign a long-term deal, however, it would appear time to let him go.