Last go-round at home
Suggs winding down NFL journey with Cardinals
GLENDALE, Ariz. – You know you’re at the extreme end of an NFL generation gap when the rookie quarterback, Kyler Murray, jokes that you’re old enough to be his father.
Terrell Suggs ponders the thought and chuckles.
“Not quite, but possibly,” Suggs, 36, said from a corner of the Cardinals locker room, winding down his 17th NFL training camp. “It’s crazy. The young kid, the quarterback, he was born in 1997 ... that was when I started my sophomore year in high school.”
He can relate to the kids, the linebacker insists, because they are connected by football with jobs to do. Yet listen to the senior citizen long enough, and an old school versus new school dynamic is sure to surface. Like the moment when Suggs, who has his own production company, recalled developing his creative juices as a youngster, while second-year linebacker Vontarrius Dora listened from the next stall.
“These young punks don’t know nothing about Hollywood Video or Blockbuster,” Suggs told USA TODAY Sports. “All they know is Netflix. But that’s what we used to do on Friday nights. We used to go to the movie store, rent movies and watch them all weekend when we weren’t outside playing.”
Kliff Kingsbury knows. The Cardinals’ coach, who just turned 40, was a fellow member of the 2003 draft class with Suggs. Kingsbury was a sixthround quarterback by the Patriots; Suggs drafted 10th overall by the Ravens. What a striking coincidence that they wound up with the Cardinals at this moment: Kingsbury trying to prove his chops as a rookie NFL coach; Suggs, the NFL’s sack leader among active players with 1321⁄2, looking to prove he can still be a force at an advanced age.
“We were at the Rookie Premiere together,” Kingsbury recalled, referring to the NFLPA’s annual marketing event for new players. “It’s amazing, the level he’s still playing at and you see how much he’s still into it. It inspires me.”
The flashbacks? “Nintendo Games and Blockbuster movies,” Kingsbury said. “We can talk about the good ole days.”
This could be some sentimental journey for Suggs, who signed a one-year, $7 million contract with the Cardinals in March after playing the first 16 years of his career with the Ravens — including that monster year, half a career ago in 2011, when he garnered NFL defensive player of the year honors. On one hand, it seemed fitting that he closed the door on finishing his career in Baltimore just as longtime general manager Ozzie Newsome turned over the reins to Eric DeCosta. Suggs was closer than most players to Newsome. But a bigger driving force, he contends, was the chance to come home to finish his career.
Suggs, whose family moved to the Phoenix area from Minnesota as he finished up middle school, attended Chandler High and Arizona State. After spending offseasons living and training in Phoenix for years, he was hardly deterred by the thought of enlisting in a rebuilding program.
“I always wanted to play for my hometown team at some point,” he said, “whether it was coming out in the draft or on the Back Nine.”
While much of the focus surrounding the Cardinals revolves around Murray and the spread offense Kingsbury has installed, Suggs is key to a rebuilt 3-4 defense coordinated by former Broncos head coach Vance Joseph. His bookend outside linebacker, Chandler Jones, is a terrific pass rusher who has posted an NFL-high 41 sacks over the past three seasons. The prospects of a dynamic tandem of edge rushers is tantalizing, even if Suggs doesn’t play the number of snaps he used to. He likely can still be effective in spot situations and create matchup issues. During camp practices, he and Jones flip-flopped sides in the middle of some series to illustrate a guesswork factor.
As Jones put it to USA TODAY Sports, “You can’t double-team both of us.”
Jones is an established veteran in his own right, heading into his eighth NFL season. When he considers that Suggs has lasted more than twice as long, the respect is evident. And this vibe goes way back. Jones knew and received pointers from Suggs before he entered the NFL, as his brother, Arthur, was a former Ravens teammate of Suggs.
“He took my older brother under his wing,” Jones said.
That underscores the added value Suggs brings now. Suggs maintains that professionalism is the ticket for his younger teammates.
“This is a business,” he said. “Not only that, this is a gift. We have the best job in the world. I just try to teach them not to take it for granted.”
Which brings back memories of Suggs’ NFL initiation, which led to the NFL defensive rookie of the year award. He walked into a Ravens locker room as the so-called young pup at the ripe age of 20 and was immediately saturated by a heavy veteran presence. What he’s trying to instill in his teammates now, he received in full force back in the day.
“We were vet stacked,” Suggs remembered. “Ray Lewis. Ed Reed. Adalius Thomas. Peter Boulware. To have those vets my rookie year, it was a great experience. I learned early how to be a professional. That’s why you see it, 17 years later.”
Still, 17 years later, after all of the years in Baltimore – and the trash talk during Steelers Week, the grudge matches against Tom Brady – it’s a bit weird seeing Suggs in Cardinals red.
He scoffs at the suggestion, shifting from sentimental to ornery.
“It’s all football,” he said. “No weird sensation, man.”