Miami Dolphins: Ndamukong Suh continues huge year

It’s been a disappointing season for the Miami Dolphins and the losses keep piling up, as they picked up their tenth defeat of the season yesterday to the Indianapolis Colts.

Even though the Miami Dolphins have been a disappointment, their marquee free agent signing on defense, Ndamukong Suh, has indeed made the profound impact that the organization envisioned when they gutsily signed him to a six-year deal worth $114 million with $60 million in guarantees.

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Although the Dolphins defense is 28th in net yards per pass attempt allowed, 23rd in points per game, and 27th in yards per game, Suh has been a high-impact superstar. The Dolphins secondary has been a disaster this year- made all the worse by Louis Delmas‘s season-ending injury before the campaign even kicked off- but Suh and fellow defensive lineman Olivier Vernon have been playmaking bright spots.

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Suh’s play and the return of a currently injured Cameron Wake could prevent the Dolphins from feeling inclined to pay Vernon this offseason, especially since they are already spending so much on the former Detroit Lions defensive tackle. Despite the high price tag, it looks like Suh is worth the money. At the very least, it’s hard to prove that he isn’t worth the money, because his elite, difference-making play hasn’t waned, which has helped allowed Vernon to post seven sacks and 18 tackles for loss with Wake out.

Just look at Suh’s numbers, because they are pretty darn impressive. Per Sporting Charts, his 12 “stuffs” in the running game are fifth in the NFL, and those “stuffs” have led to a league-high 42 yards lost. Additionally, the only defensive tackles with more hurries are Geno Atkins and Kawann Short, and only five players in the NFL have more than Suh’s 16 tackles for loss through 15 games.

These are stellar numbers, and they don’t take into account some of the standout plays Suh has made this year that don’t show up on the stat sheet.

There are some people who will look at Suh’s 5.5 sacks this season and point to it as a negative, explaining that the fact that he has less than 8.5 sacks he put up last season indicates that he isn’t worth the money. But if sacks are the stat you are using to evaluate defensive tackle play, then you are taking a completely inaccurate view of how to evaluate the position accurately. Even more specific stats like TFLs, stuffs, and hurries can be flawed, but sacks tell such a small part of the story that they are only modestly useful if they deviate significantly from a player’s normal totals.

Since Suh had 5.5 sacks in 2013 and was also brilliant that year, it’s clearly best to look at the numbers I highlighted from Sporting Charts’s site.

As we saw yesterday against the Colts offense, Suh was a beast, consistently putting pressure up the middle, even if he has had much better games against the run. He picked up a sack, added another QB hit, and more than made up for a couple of frustrating penalties that he could have avoided with more patience and discipline.

Nov 22, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins defensive end Ndamukong Suh (93) spits out water in the second half against the Dallas Cowboys at Sun Life Stadium. The Cowboys won 24-14. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Innerarity-USA TODAY Sports

Suh is, perhaps, the biggest reason why the Colts poor QBs averaged just 6.1 yards per attempt against a pass defense that was shredded by the New York Giants and San Diego Chargers in their previous two games for a combined 61 points.

With the way he’s produced as a pass rusher and the way he’s rag-dolled offensive linemen in the running game, it’s strange to think that Dolphins exec Mike Tannenbaum outright called him a disappointment back in October.

Suh has been anything but a disappointment lately, and he now has 5 QB hits and 1.5 sacks in the team’s past two games to put stats to back up the steady pressure he’s putting on QBs.

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If the Dolphins can upgrade other parts of their defense, Suh’s 2016 numbers should better reflect his play, though it’s not like he’s been lacking in the stats department as a top-three DT when looking at the numbers referenced earlier in the piece.