Suh free agent talk will be hot topic at NFL combine

They happen in fancy restaurants across downtown Indianapolis and in corner tables at hotel bars, and this week they're bound to involve Ndamukong Suh.

Along with a chance for teams across the league to get heights, weights and physicals on all of the year's top draft prospects, this week's NFL combine marks the unofficial start to free agency, where teams and agents meet for dinner or a drink and the topic of money and years often comes up.

Suh is the top free agent on the market, or will be if he doesn't sign a long-term deal with the Lions by 4 p.m. March 10. By the time the combine ends Monday, he and the rest of the league should have a better idea what his future holds.

The Lions plan to meet with Suh's agent, Jimmy Sexton, to ramp up contract negotiations at some point this week, and there should be other suitors, too.

Not officially.

Teams interested in signing Suh can't talk with Sexton about his client until three days before free agency begins next month.

But tampering is rampant in Indianapolis — and everyone knows it.

From the Lions' standpoint, they can use the week to advance talks on a new long-term deal for Suh and to gauge the market for possible replacements should Suh sign elsewhere (or sidekicks if he doesn't).

Suh's side, likewise, can see what appetite is out there for a three-time first-team All-Pro defensive tackle who wants to be the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL.

Contract offers might not be forthcoming from other teams — that's what the three-day window next month is for, and teams are reluctant to show their hand too early — but the Lions and most others will have finished their free-agent meetings and know where their priorities stand.

"Clearly it's going to be an expensive deal, but it's hard when you get right to the edge of free agency as opposed to doing it in his extension year," said Jeff Diamond, a former front-office executive with the Minnesota Vikings who once negotiated a deal that made John Randle the highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL. "He's so close to being able to field offers, and that just makes it so much more difficult."

The Lions have publicly expressed confidence in signing Suh to a long-term deal for more than a year, but Suh has remained quiet recently, and the sides were far apart when the team halted talks last summer.

Regardless of the gap in negotiations, the Lions will keep close tabs on the defensive tackle prospects on display at the combine this week.

Their top-four interior linemen from a season ago — Suh, Nick Fairley, C.J. Mosley and Andre Fluellen — are free agents, and there's a good crop of defensive tackles who could be available for the Lions with the 23rd pick of the first round.

"I see eight defensive tackles that I think are high-level players," NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said in a teleconference Monday. "Not that the rest aren't, because there's a bunch of other good ones. But my point is I think there's a little bit of a drop-off."

USC defensive lineman Leonard Williams is widely considered the best defensive prospect in the draft, but neither he nor Washington nose tackle Danny Shelton likely will make it past the top-15 picks.

Beyond those two, Mayock said Malcom Brown of Texas, Arik Armstead of Oregon, Jordan Phillips of Oklahoma, Eddie Goldman of Florida State, Carl Davis of Iowa and Michael Bennett of Ohio State fall into the "high-level" category with various pluses and minuses.

Brown, a popular mock-draft choice of the Lions, is a big-bodied run stopper who's married with two children. Armstead, at 6-feet-7 and nearly 300 pounds, is the most physically imposing of the bunch, though he had only four career sacks. Phillips might be the most talented of the group, but he comes with significant medical questions about his back. Goldman was a highly rated recruit who was inconsistent his first two years. Davis, a Detroit native, opened eyes at the Senior Bowl after an up-and-down career at Iowa. And Mayock said Bennett projects as a second-round pick.

If the Lions wait to address their need at defensive tackle until Day 2 of the draft, Mayock said players like Mario Edwards from Florida State and Tyeler Davison of Fresno State could be in the mix.

Regardless, the Lions and others can use this week in Indianapolis to sort through the mix.

"You're used to these first-round, super-freaky defensive tackles with Suh and Fairley," Mayock said. "It'll be interesting to see where you end up, especially if you get into that second or third round."