Dolphins Teammates Reportedly Upset by Ndamukong Suh's Absence from Workouts

The Miami Dolphins may have an expensive headache to deal with ahead of the 2016 season.

The Miami Herald's Adam H. Beasley reported Tuesday that some Dolphins players are upset with defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh's decision to skip the start of the team's voluntary veterans minicamp. Suh was one of four defensive starters absent (Mario Williams, Koa Misi and Reshad Jones being the others).   

"Teammates are privately steamed about the league's highest-paid defensive player again doing what he wants—a recurring problem during much of the 2015 season," Beasley wrote.

On April 11, Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald reported Suh attended the first workout for the team's offseason strength-and-conditioning plan, explaining the four-time Pro Bowler tends to train at a Nike facility in Oregon. Salguero also dispelled the notion Suh is shirking his offseason preparations when he does his own thing:

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I'm told Suh works in a state of the art environment that simulates the weather of Davie, Florida, where the Dolphins train, in the dead of summer. (That is hot and humid, folks).

And he's hooked up to diagnostic machines and oxygen and other breathing apparatus throughout his work. Think opening for Six Million Dollar Man.

The point here is Suh is in South Florida and working, but no one should question what he's doing when and if he disappears later during the program.

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Beasley believes the optics are important in this situation:

It wouldn't be surprising if Suh were the source of some friction among his teammates. Last September, Beasley reported Suh "freelanced" during stretches of Miami's 23-20 Week 2 defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Then, in November, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport (via NFL.com's Kevin Patra) reported he offered a controversial motivational speech to his fellow defensive players:

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"I'm told he told them: 'I run this defense, I'm going to be here for the next five years, there is no guarantee any of you will be as well. Only a handful of guys are good enough to play with me right now,'" Rapoport said. "He also said the schemes were not good enough, the techniques were not enough and everyone needed to be better, he said 'follow me.'"

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Suh isn't leaving Miami anytime soon. He's only in the second year of his massive six-year, $114 million deal. As ESPN.com's Bill Barnwell noted, the Dolphins don't have much leverage over Suh in this situation:

New head coach Adam Gase is certainly in a tough position. He and the rest of the team's management will seemingly need to allow some level of freedom to Suh to ensure he's happy, which would ideally lead to him playing at a high level. If Dolphins players think Gase is coddling Suh too much, though, it could backfire in a big way.

Just as important as how Gase leads the team on the field, his ability to keep everyone happy in the locker room will be pivotal for the Dolphins if they hope to end their postseason drought.