2010 NFL Draft: Would Ndamukong Suh's Impact Be Bigger in St. Louis or Detroit?

Ndamukong Suh has become one of the most talked about draft prospects in the last decade who isn’t a quarterback.

Suh possesses an almost freakish combination of size and strength. Standing 6’4” and weighing in at 302 pounds, Suh is the kind of guy who commands everyone’s attention when he walks into a room or steps onto the field.

Suh’s ability to run through, around, and over opposing offensive lines has been well-documented elsewhere, so let’s focus on which team might see a bigger impact from having Suh on their club.

The St. Louis Rams are in an interesting dilemma, as they need a new franchise quarterback. Winning in the NFL in the 21st Century demands it. However, Suh is the kind of defensive talent who only comes along once in a generation.

Suh had 82 tackles his senior season, 47 of them solo. While college numbers don’t always project evenly into the pros, those tackle numbers aren’t anything to sniff at.

The St. Louis Rams ranked 29th overall in defense last year. James Laurinaitis had 107 tackles, Ronald Bartell had 61 tackles, and Oshiomogho Atogwe and James Butler both had 58.

The Detroit Lions ranked dead last in defense, and Larry Foote was their leading tackler with 70. Louis Delmas came in second with 65 tackles, and DeAndre Levy had 61.

For the sake of argument, let’s project Suh to have a great rookie year, living up to his potential. We’ll assume Suh catches up to the speed of the NFL by the fourth game and develops at an accelerated rate.

Using those projections, that should still translate to around 60 tackles on the year. With that number, the Lions definitely would end up benefiting more than the Rams. While the Rams defense obviously wasn’t great last year, they do have guys who make tackles.  

The Lions are thin on that aspect when their leading tackler only had 70.

Even if Suh ends up with an “average” rookie season compared to his draft position, say only around 40 tackles, he’s still contributing more than most of Detroit’s current lineup.

The other number to look at is quarterback sacks. Suh had 12 of those last year. The Rams only had 25 total, with Leonard Little leading the team with six sacks.

The Lions had 26 total sacks, with Cliff Avril leading the squad with 5.5 sacks.

Either way, Suh should end up leading either team in sacks if his numbers project out on the high end.

There is no downside to Suh. He can stuff the run, sack the quarterback, and drop back into coverage.

This is one of those prospects who has every team not drafting No. 1 considering if it’s worth it to try and trade up to grab him.

The Rams are on the clock, and several mock drafts have them taking a quarterback, while other columnists point out that it would be criminal to pass up a guy like Suh.

Only the Rams know what they’re going to do, but you can put your money on one thing: If St. Louis opts for the franchise quarterback, there’s no way the Lions pass up Suh.