Earlier this month, Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson said he’d do whatever he could to keep defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh in Detroit this offseason.
It doesn’t look like he’ll have to do anything regarding his contract. Johnson is set to count $20.55 million against the cap in 2015 and is coming off two years where he dealt with a variety of injuries, but General Manager Martin Mayhew said he’s not concerned with that figure as the team moves toward free agency.
“When we have a guy like that that’s one of your highest paid guys, but he’s a great teammate, great in the community and he works the way that he works, that’s what you want,” Mayhew said, via the team’s website. “You have other guys in the locker room who aspire to be like him. They say they want to get paid what he gets paid, they better be bringing to the table that he brings to the table.”
Mayhew said that he’s comfortable paying cornerstone pieces of the team like Johnson and quarterback Matthew Stafford at the level they’re being paid right now and he includes Suh in that group, indicating the level that the Lions know generally how much it will take to keep him on board. It seems they’re comfortable they can reach that number without tweaking Johnson’s deal and we’ll know if they’re correct without too much more delay.
