The Lions were the league’s stingiest defense against the run in 2014 and the second-stingiest overall, which led to a lot of questions this offseason about how the unit will fare without defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh holding down the middle of the defensive line.
Suh is in Miami now, of course, and there have been similar questions about what his arrival will mean for the defense in Miami. According to Suh, the potential for “a deadly defense” is there because there’s more overall talent on that side of the ball in Miami than there was in Detroit last year.
“I don’t have a problem saying this, but I think personally that we have more talent [in Miami] than we had in the No. 1 defense last year in Detroit,” Suh said, via ESPN.com. “So, by that saying, you would say we should have the No. 1 defense this year. But that’s not going to happen [because] we don’t know what’s going to happen until guys come together, understand what they’re going to do and then you create a camaraderie.”
Suh stressed that having more talent on paper means nothing because games aren’t played on paper. The on-field performance has been pretty good thus far. The Dolphins first-team hasn’t allowed a point through two preseason games and that’s only going to add to the optimism in Miami heading into this season.