Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has now completed his rookie contract with the team. The Lions apparently want to keep him.
But the franchise tag isn’t an option -- unless they want to devote more than $26 million in 2015 cap space to one player.
It means that, if the Lions are going to keep Suh, they’ll need to make a competitive offer. If not the best offer. The Lions apparently intend to do that.
Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Lions coach Jim Caldwell said Monday that re-signing Suh will “continue to be one of our highest priorities.”
Added Caldwell on Suh, “He’s a dominant, dominant player who we benefit from having his services. . . . He’s quite a player.”
With Suh recently saying that his agent will pick Suh’s next team, the message is clear -- Suh will go to the highest bidder. If the Lions want him, then, they’ll need to be the highest bidder. Unless Suh ultimately decides not to let his agent pick Suh’s next team and to let him take less to stay with the Lions.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Lions currently have two other big-ticket players in quarterback Matthew Stafford, who has a 2015 cap number of $17.72 million in 2015, and receiver Calvin Johnson, who has a cap number of $20.558 million in 2015.
All three were drafted under the pre-2011 CBA, which didn’t have a rookie wage scale and which forced the Lions to pay plenty for a trio of top-two picks from 2007 through 2010, and which triggered significant second contracts for Johnson and Stafford.