A Tip That Ndamukong Suh Wants To Return Next Season
January 15th, 2022
The Bucs will have a healthy list of big-name free agents next month and Joe believes one of them just fired a warning shot.
Legendary manbeast defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is 35 years old and a feature on his training regimen just popped at GQ.com.
Suh is a highly intelligent and calculated business man. So Joe thinks it’s obvious that Suh timed that feature to make general managers around the NFL take notice of his commitment to body maintenance.
Joe would call it fitness, but it’s so much more than that. Here’s a snippet:
What happens after the team meeting?
… … Sometimes I’ll work with the PT, other days I’m stretching, foam rolling, and priming my body. On Fridays, because I’m an older guy in this league, I’ll go to walkthrough but won’t practice. Then, I’ll go home and work with my own personal team of folks including another physical therapist, where I focus on another two to three hours of recovery modalities that vary based on the day.
What are some of those modalities?
It’s a lot of different stuff. I’ve seen success with dry needling. Could be time in the sauna. Massage. It really varies. What I do at home also varies based on what time or day the game is, like if it’s a 1 p.m. or 4 p.m. game, we adjust and adapt.
People have to understand, I play a sport that has a 100 percent injury rate. You need to have the ability to adjust and know when to ramp things up or down. The most important thing is being able to play on Sunday.
What a warrior Suh has been. He’s never missed a game in his 12-year career because of injury. That’s nearly impossible at defensive tackle.
Still, Joe would hesitate to bring back Suh next season if he wants another one-year deal for $9 million to play less than two-thirds of the defensive snaps. At some point, moving on becomes the smart move. Perhaps this is the year?
Also, the Bucs likely would be served well by drafting another beast on the interior defensive line and re-signing 30-year-old Will Gholston, who also will be a free agent.
Suh is a slam-dunk Hall of Famer and was an All-Decade player for the 2010’s, but the Bucs may have maxed out his value to the team. Perhaps Suh will make it easy and retire after the Bucs win the Super Bowl next month?
January 15th, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Good summary of the issue. Hope he comes back – but not at an excessive price.
January 15th, 2022 at 12:08 pm
If Suh would come back on something team friendly for one more year in the $5 million range the savings could be used to resign Gholston and part of the draft class.
January 15th, 2022 at 12:09 pm
I would take Suh at 1/2 the snaps over any rookie next year…
January 15th, 2022 at 12:15 pm
“Suh is a highly intelligent and calculated business man.”
That seems to say that he will wait and see how this season plays out, including the off-season. *If* the Bucs make it to the Super Bowl, and key players return (Brady, Gronk, Godwin, etc), he is probably smart enough to sign for a ‘small’ salary with incentives. He would be here to groom a replacement, make one last NFL year, and possibly another run to a Super Bowl. While *we* think he’s a first ballot HoFer, he just might want a little insurance, and be happy for the Glazers to pay for it.
January 15th, 2022 at 12:16 pm
Seems like reading a lot into a description of his training and recovery methods for a men’s magazine.
Timing. About the timing. –Joe
January 15th, 2022 at 12:22 pm
I’m in agreement, Suh will need to dramatically alter his price tag to remain a Buc but I love the dude.
January 15th, 2022 at 12:42 pm
Suh is well worth the money they’re paying him. I don’t see why he should be expecting any less next year. I’m sure they could restructure it in a cap friendly way if they need to.
January 15th, 2022 at 12:52 pm
Stan is right on point, if you want filet mignon , you can’t pay for ribeye. Suh will continue to get his 8-9 mil. whether here or elsewhere.
January 15th, 2022 at 12:54 pm
The question that always determines personnel decisions in the NFL.
Can you get a better DT for Less?
If Suh drops his Price a bit, that will be a tough question to Answer.
He is still a force. We have paid many other much more for less results.
January 15th, 2022 at 1:05 pm
Sign him to another deal worth @ $6-$7 million with lots of incentives based on playing time, sacks, TFL, etc.
Incentives won’t count against the 2022 salary cap… If he can find a better deal elsewhere then you say adios and thank you.
January 15th, 2022 at 1:25 pm
I completely and wholeheartedly agree w/ ALL of this 🙏
January 15th, 2022 at 1:39 pm
Man has no missed a game due to injury in his career, why should he take a home town discount, the 2nd best Dlineman on the team.
January 15th, 2022 at 2:07 pm
His future status in Tampa really depends how he performs in the playoffs.
January 15th, 2022 at 2:30 pm
I definitely think they need to draft a D- lineman and resign Gholston. This draft has a lot of depth at DL.
January 15th, 2022 at 2:37 pm
Bucs have far too little money and far too many FAs to re-sign them all. In the trenches, we’ve got 9 FAs to re-sign or replace: Jensen, Cappa, Stinnie, Wells, Suh, JPP, Gholston, O’Connor & McLendon. That’s a lot of beef, and beef is expensive nowadays.
We can probably replace 1-2 of them with high-round rookies (Rnds 1-4) and maybe replace 1-2 of them with other FAs, but my guess is that we’ll still need to re-sign at least 5-6 of that group of 9. Personally I’d re-sign Suh & Gholston in that group, PROVIDING the price is right. And IMO that’d be about $6-7 mil for Suh and $3-4 mil for Gholston. TOGETHER we can probably get 100% of the def snaps for 1 DT position. They’ve both stayed quite healthy this year (both got 17 games), and paired with Vea & RNR (both under contract) we ‘should’ have the interior DLine covered.
January 15th, 2022 at 2:40 pm
Suh is worth the $9 mil…..maybe he’ll play for $8………rather pay Suh $9 than some unknown who will miss half the games to injury.
Isn’t it interesting that our big men didn’t get injured much this year……Suh, Vea, Gholston, Nacho, Jensen, Smith, Cappa, Marpet, Wirfs……
January 15th, 2022 at 2:54 pm
“Still, Joe would hesitate to bring back Suh next season if he wants another one-year deal for $9 million to play less than two-thirds of the defensive snaps.”
Great point. Love Suh, but not worth the money.
January 15th, 2022 at 3:20 pm
I think he’s guaranteed 6 next year whether he’s on the team or not, so might as well bring him back if he wants to.
January 15th, 2022 at 3:26 pm
Well… we’ll see soon enough if he still has that extra playoff gear!
January 15th, 2022 at 3:36 pm
Joe, if he never misses a game and is a hall of famer playing on a deal for under 10m why would we want to lose him? If he wants to play for the same salary I say we would be dumb to let him go. JPP for 12 is another story.
January 15th, 2022 at 5:16 pm
Watching the Bengals D line and front 7 … it may be the time to seriously renew the talent on the Bucs front 7 .
January 15th, 2022 at 7:28 pm
Keep Suh as long as he wants to play- d line field general
January 15th, 2022 at 8:28 pm
Someone please tell me, who is this generational talent we’re going to replace Suh with when we pick 32nd?
January 15th, 2022 at 8:47 pm
If we can bring back Godwin and get a good free agent corner that isn’t fragile as an eggshell, I’d love to have Suh back once receiver and corner are shored up.
January 16th, 2022 at 10:53 am
Suh is not taking a discount but we need him back, He helps the other dline understand how to be a professional, how to train, and how to study. Also he is a rock in there next to vita.
Bring him back even at the same cost.