Ndamukong Suh Looks To Start the Season

Ndamukong Suh Looks To Start the Season

The Detroit Lions have been able to draft a lot of talent over the last five years but most of them have not panned out for one reason or another or have moved onto another team.  One of the main goals that the Lions set out to accomplish this offseason was to improve the defense, placing an emphasis on the defensive line through free agency and the draft.  This year, with their top draft choice they chose to draft Nebraska defensive lineman, Ndamukong Suh, with the second overall pick, which in my opinion, Suh was the best player in the draft.  The Lions also went out and signed veteran Kyle Vanden Bosch, who before last season spent the previous five years in Tennessee playing under Jim Schwartz.  Suh and Vanden Bosch will join fellow veterans Jared DeVries and Corey Williams to help anchor and solidify their defensive line.  So far during the Lions OTA’s and mini-camps, Suh has been running with the first-team defense.  Coach Schwartz would like for him to bulk up to around  lbs before the start of the season.  The extra weight will help his solid rush defense get that much better.  Suh is expected to start the season and I expect him to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year award.Ndamukong Suh on KFXX in Portland to talk about whether it bothered him that Nebraska moved to the Big Ten Conference, what he thinks is the best thing about Detroit, and him planning on giving some of his contract money back to Nebraska.

Whether it bothered him that Nebraska moved to the Big Ten Conference:

“I definitely have pride in the Big 12…  Going back and forth between who is better, the Big 10 or the Big 12?  And who is better, Nebraska or Iowa?  But honestly your school is what you stay close to the most.”

What he thinks is the best thing about Detroit:

“The best thing about Detroit is the people, the fans out here.  I mean it is amazing.  Everybody first told me when I was getting ready to come out here that everybody has been down in a slum and the fans aren’t going to be that happy to embrace you and then it has been a total opposite.  They have embraced me with open arms and I have enjoyed it ever since I have been out here.  Actually, I was out here for the first time this weekend.  I definitely enjoyed it a lot.  I went to the Tigers game, went to NASCAR on Sunday and the fans there are just amazing.”

Whether he has gotten paid yet:

“I have not.  I am still, I still have not received my contract and I don’t know when that will happen but hopefully it will come soon.”

On him planning on giving some of his contract money back to Nebraska:

“Yes, sir I do.  I had a great, great four or five years there or four and a half years to be exact.  Their Engineering program, Engineering school and obviously played some great football while I was there.  I definitely want to give back to a program that gave me so much and a school that gave me so much.”

Who the quarterback is that he would most like to sack:

“The quarterback that I would most like to sack, not to hurt him by any means but it would mean quite a bit to sack a future Hall of Famer in Brett Favre…  Yeah I would definitely like to sack Favre.  That would be a nice notch on my belt, the quarterbacks that I have sacked.”

Whether he is starting right now in practice:

“There is no particular status as to whether they are going to be a starter or not.  But I am running with the ones or the first group today.  I am definitely embracing that and being able to play with some great guys in Kyle Vanden Bosch, Corey Williams and Jared DeVries and so forth.”