Ndamukong Suh: I should have been paid more than Matthew Stafford in Detroit
The Lions had the misfortune of being the worst team in the NFL for the first decade of this century. They had the good fortune of regularly getting high draft picks, including the second overall pick to draft Calvin Johnson in 2007, the first overall pick to draft Matthew Stafford in 2009, and the second overall pick to draft Ndamukong Suh in 2010. But they had the misfortune of those picks coming under the old Collective Bargaining Agreement that gave massive contracts to high draft picks. That put a strain on the Lions' salary cap, and after giving lucrative second contracts to Johnson and Stafford, they decided they couldn't afford to keep Suh, and let him leave for Miami in free agency.
Suh thinks the Lions were wrong.
Suh said on his Facebook page that the Lions should have paid him more than Stafford and done whatever it took to keep him, rather than testing free agency in 2015 after his rookie contract expired.
"Detroit, in my opinion, when I first came out, really gave me the short end of the stick. I should have been paid more than Matthew Stafford," Suh said. "They didn't value me enough, to say, 'Hey, you're not going to get paid more than our quarterback.'"
Suh believes his importance to the franchise was not reflected in what the Lions were willing to pay.
"I was a cornerstone of the Detroit Lions, just like Stafford, just like Calvin, but the pay never matched the weight I carried," Suh wrote. "I wasn't just a defensive tackle. I was the guy offenses game-planned for. I was the one of the guys setting the tone in the locker room and on the field. And while quarterbacks get the big checks, I was the one putting my body on the line every play, chasing down QBs. They built the offense around him, They built the identity of the defense around the Dline and me! You don't talk about the Lions of that era without mentioning Calvin Johnson or Matthew Stafford, myself and our Dline! So yeah... I believed I should've been paid like them, Because impact isn't just about stats, it's about presence, influence, folks wanting to play with you and for you ! Lesson... If you're carrying the load, on the field or in business, don't be afraid to ask for what you're worth. Because being valuable and being valued are two different things!"
Suh made an estimated $168 million in his NFL career, including $64 million from the Lions, $60 million from the Dolphins, $14.5 million from the Rams, $27.5 million from the Buccaneers and $2 million from the Eagles. That's a lot of money, but it's less than half of what Stafford has made. The reality of the modern NFL is that quarterbacks will always be the highest-paid players, no matter how much Suh wishes that weren't the case.