Ndamukong Suh never looked to leave Detroit Lions

Former Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndaumkong Suh says he wasn’t always hoping to leave the team.

While everyone around the NFL expected Ndamukong Suh to move on from the Detroit Lions as soon as the opportunity arose, the superstar defensive tackle insisted that it was never his goal to leave the team.

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In a rare interview with Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Suh said that he wasn’t hoping to leave his original NFL team:

"“For me, my goal was always to come back. I was never looking to want to leave and figure out a different situation…There is no question that it’s a huge misconception that I didn’t want to be here, I’ve always wanted to be here, especially growing up (as a person) here, being drafted here and having such a huge warm welcome.”"

The Lions had a chance to retain Suh by using their franchise tag, but it would have given him an impossible salary of over $25 million for one season. Detroit continued to work closely with Suh after deciding not to tag him, which led him to believe that he could still be a Lion for life.

Signing a six-year, $114 million contract with nearly $60 million guaranteed in a state without income tax probably helped make Suh’s decision to leave to the Miami Dolphins easier. Miami’s contract wasn’t all that much more than Detroit’s final offer of $102 million with $58 million guaranteed, according to Birkett.

Whether Suh wanted to leave or not, the Lions will have to move on with Ezekiel Ansah and newly-acquired Haloti Ngata anchoring the defensive line.

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