The Lions have hired their new head coach, which means that they can start moving on to other offseason matters.
A contract extension for defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh appears to be on that list. Team president Tom Lewand said Wednesday that the team and Suh have had initial discussions about extending his deal, which has a voidable year in 2015 that makes 2014 the final year he’s assured to be on the Lions roster.
“We have tremendous respect for Ndamukong. We’ve expressed to him an interest in him being here, and he’s expressed an interest in staying here,” Lewand said, via MLive.com. “We’ll see where that takes us and what the timing of that is. He stopped by today to see Coach Caldwell and I think he’s another guy who can benefit from the leadership Jim is going to bring and from the staff.”
Suh is set to count $22.4 million against the cap in 2014, which provides plenty of impetus for the Lions to come up with a deal that leaves more room for other needs. The five-year deals signed by Haloti Ngata and Geno Atkins in recent years provide some framework for the Lions and Suh to use as they hammer out the details of a new deal that would keep Suh in Detroit for the long term.