Ndamukong Suh Is Type of Rare Player Worth Massive Risk, Massive Contract

Whichever team gets Ndamukong Suh—and at this point, it looks like it will be the Miami Dolphins who snag him—will sign a wonderful talent. That organization will also be taking one of the biggest risks in the history of NFL free agency.

I came prepared to say signing a defensive tackle to a contract that will make him the highest-paid defensive player of all time—which is what will happen when Suh signs—would be asinine. Further, a team would be making a player who regularly delivers cheap shots and seems to enjoy kicking dudes in the groin perhaps its top free-agent signing in franchise history.

I was set to say signing him would be dumb. He's a time bomb. Paying mega-cash to inside guys is just plain stupid. Then three things happened to change my mind.   

First, I remembered what happened against Dallas in the playoffs this past season. We have seen Suh be a total badass before—many times, in fact—but that game against Dallas was on a high plane, even for him.

He obliterated a good Dallas offensive line. It was like the Cowboys had cable and Suh had DirecTV. I was at that game and watched Suh's battles closely, and I was convinced by the end of it he had destroyed the will of some players on that line. 

He drank their milkshake.

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Second, I spent the last week interviewing team-personnel men about Suh. Several are involved in the Suh sweepstakes, most were not. The consensus: There is only one true great free agent from this class, and it is Suh. And he is worth every dime he'd command.

Not a single one of them was concerned, in any way, about Suh's volatile behavior—the massive fines, the suspension. It was as if, in their minds, none of that existed. He's so good, they all told me, it overshadows all else.

This is a dangerous thought process. In today's game, hotheads get sidelined by the NFL. If Suh does muay thai someone's groin again, say, late in the year, he could miss playoff games. It is probably a risk I'd still take.

Third, and most important, I spoke with one of the NFL's true front-office legends, Ernie Accorsi, who, as general manager, built playoff teams in Cleveland and Super Bowl winners with the Giants. Accorsi said the idea of paying a defensive tackle—even exorbitantly—isn't totally insane in this case.

While Accorsi (who should be in the Hall of Fame) agreed with my original hypothesis that it's not smart to pay an interior lineman mega-bucks, he made, as he always does, another smart point.

"If they can rush the passer, you can pay them," Accorsi told me. "I don't know enough about him or see the Lions enough to know if he is a premier pass-rusher. I would pay Joe Greene, Alan Page, Randy White or Bob Lilly big money. And my favorite, Gene 'Big Daddy' Lipscomb, who should be in the HOF."

All of those players were interior linemen. I think Suh is Randy White, who played for the Cowboys from 1975-1988 and is in the Hall of Fame. To me, they are almost the exact same guy.

As we prepare to embark on the most overrated part of the NFL calendar—free agency, where dudes who should get paid don't, and dudes who do get paid shouldn't—Suh is its biggest and most significant chess piece.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

He is the biggest part of this year's free agency because he's uber-talented. But there's another reason: This is not a great free-agent class. When a defensive tackle (no matter how good he is) and a running back in DeMarco Murray are the hottest players in free agency—a defensive tackle and a running back in a passing league—that speaks a great deal about this class.

Suh represents, in many ways, an old-school approach to football. In the 21st-century NFL, offense is king. Suh will be one of the last times, maybe for years to come, when the league, in this era of offense, goes bonkers over an interior defensive lineman.

There are people who think paying Suh big money would be a huge mistake. "I wouldn't give a defensive tackle that much money," Tony Softli, former front-office executive with the St. Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers, told the Detroit Free Press.

The last time the NFL rolled out the free-agent red carpet for an interior defensive lineman was with Albert Haynesworth. Say that name to general managers now, and they have blackouts. Haynesworth signed a seven-year deal with Washington worth $100 million. He played just two seasons in Washington, and that deal is the worst free-agent signing of all time.

Haynesworth actually gave Suh some advice, which is like Johnny Manziel telling Tom Brady how to throw an out route. Haynesworth said Suh needs to make sure he doesn't lose his love for football despite earning the huge money.

"Well, I mean, it wasn't fun," Haynesworth said. "To be honest, after like a year or so of doing that, I mean, it really just got old. It was not, not fun. At Washington, it took my love away from the game. When I was with the Titans we loved the game. We loved, as a D-line, to go out and just destroy an offense."

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

He continued: "We didn't win all the time or whatever, but just to know that we really caused problems for other offenses and that we played extremely hard. ... And then, when I went to Washington, it almost became like politics. Almost. It wasn't 100 percent about football."

Not bad advice. Just ironic.

It's a risk, to be sure. A huge one.

I'd sign him and then cross my fingers. And toes. And everything else.