The Lions started their voluntary offseason workouts this week and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is not among the players working with new head coach Jim Caldwell in Detroit.
Suh and the Lions are working on an extension that would both keep Suh in Detroit beyond the 2014 season and lower his $22.5 million cap charge for the coming season, which running back Reggie Bush thinks is the reason that Suh hasn’t joined the other Lions at this point. Bush also said that no one on the team has any hard feelings toward Suh about his absence.
“From what I know it’s a contract thing so that’s the business side of stuff and we all go through it so everybody understands,” Bush said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “Nobody’s looking down on him. I’m sure as soon as he can be here he’ll be here.”
Bush may not be right about the reason for Suh’s absence as he’s frequently skipped the voluntary portions of offseason work in the past when he didn’t have extension talks going on. Those absences haven’t been met with any public negativity from his teammates, so it’s not surprising to learn that it isn’t leading to any raised eyebrows this time around.