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First, Dolphin fans should slow down. Coming to a conclusion two games into an NFL season is like criticizing LeBron James because he missed the first two shots, in the first game of an 82 game NBA season. It is not nearly a big enough sample size. It is not even a snip of a snippet.
Having watched Suh play every game of his career in Detroit, I get the feeling Dolphin’s fans are looking for the wrong thing in Suh. His impact isn’t going to come in statistics, which people in Miami are going to want to see, after all the cash they have given this guy. However, Suh doesn’t put up big numbers. His career high for sacks is 10, and his career high for individual tackles is 48. He has one interception that he returned for a touchdown his rookie year in Detroit.
He is not going to be doing all the things in Miami that J.J. Watt does in Houston. He doesn’t block passes, and he doesn’t catch passes.
What made Suh great in Detroit was his ability to penetrate the line of scrimmage. He may not have always made the play, but he set others up to be highly successful. He consistently, and violently, set the edge for the Lions’ defense, wrecking what ever the opposition was trying to do, especially in the run game with his physical play and penetration.
Suh is a very, very good player. Check that, he is a great player, but he is great in a very unique way. In Detroit he forced teams to double-team him on a consistent basis. He made others around him better with his presence.
Nonetheless, because there was a specific greatness to how Suh played in Motown, there was a limit to what the Lions were willing to pay him. The Lions’ felt he was the anchor to their defense, but as great of an anchor he was, he couldn’t cost more than the ship.
I am sure that Suh will play better. In Detroit, he had some quiet games. In his second season, he didn’t play very well (for him) at all. But there was never a doubt about his effort, and about him playing not to get hurt, as one critic is saying, I have a hard time believing that.
What Dolphins fans are going to have to understand is that Suh playing great might mean a sack (maybe), and four or five tackles in a game. His impact is never going to show up on the stat sheet. If the Dolphins paid Suh $114 million to fill up the stat sheet, they will never get their money’s worth.
