DETROIT – The pressure was on the Lions, but they didn't blink or give in. For once, the Lions got it right.
The Lions had until 4 p.m. today to decide if they were going to use the franchise tag on Ndamukong Suh for 2015.
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They've already decided: No tag for Suh.
Hence, Suh will become an unrestricted free agent and will be able to sign with any NFL team, starting March 10.
To their credit, the Lions have told their fans that no one player is bigger than the franchise. It's clear now that they are trying to win a Super Bowl and that they weren't going to make a huge mistake to simply save face.
The Lions have tried to sign Suh, the Pro Bowl defensive tackle for almost two years without success.
The Lions even heard all the rumors that Suh wouldn't sign a deal with the franchise and simply wanted to bolt Motown. Apparently, they finally got the hint.
Reportedly, the Lions offered Suh a package that would have made him the highest-paid player at his position. It didn't move Suh to sign.
All indications were that Suh didn't want to be here anymore after five NFL seasons. Normally, a team would have moved on. And finally, so have the Lions.
Apparently, the Lions got over the idea of losing Suh, one of the top players in the league.
The franchise tag simply didn't make any sense, especially if this organization was serious about fielding a team that has a shot to win a Super Bowl.
After all, isn't that the goal? The Lions have won just one playoff game since 1957 and are one of only four teams never to make it to the Super Bowl (the other three teams are all expansion teams).
Nonetheless, we all got why the Lions waited to the bitter end on Suh. After all, Suh is a star. Of course, the Lions wanted Suh to stay and anchor their top-ranked defense. It was a no-brainer.
But the Lions couldn't do it at all costs. And if Suh wasn't willing to sign a deal that worked for both him and the team, it was just not worth it.
Fans can't blame the Lions' organization if Suh didn't want to sign. It's clear they wanted Suh and have tried in good faith to keep a player they drafted.
Few players would have left a mega-bucks offer with guaranteed cheese on the table to play a season. Don't forget, a player can be hurt on any play, even suffer a career-ending injury. But that's what Suh did in 2014. He gambled and won.
Suh deserves to get paid. Suh is a productive, game-changing player that most teams would take in a heartbeat.
But most winning organizations wouldn't have kept a player just to keep him. The money the Lions would have had to pay him would have crippled their ability to do anything else free agent-wise.
Suh's franchise tag number for this coming season would have been a whopping $26,870,000.
Plus, if the Lions would have franchised Suh, that's $26.9 million and another $9.7 million in "dead money" that's already been paid out on the team's cap.
That would have meant that $36.6 million would have counted against the NFL's projected $143 million cap for 2015. Hence, that's roughly 25% of the cap used on ONE player.
Add Matthew Stafford's money ($17.7 million) and Calvin Johnson's loot ($20.6 million) to Suh's potential franchise tag package and those three players ($74.89 million) would have drained the franchise's ability to add quality depth to the roster.
It's good the Lions didn't worry about fans screaming to the high heavens. Some, no doubt, will say the organization is dumb to let Suh go.
But most fans simply don't understand the ramifications of trying to use the expensive franchise tag to basically lengthen the time they could negotiate with Suh to get a deal done.
It just didn't seem possible, however. It didn't seem as if Suh wanted to be in Detroit anymore.
In all honestly, if Suh was serious about this organization and what is being built here, he would have signed a new contract a long time ago.
The Lions were smart not to bend. If the Lions gave in, it wouldn't have helped this organization as much as it would've hurt it.