Examining a Suh-real Dolphins Story

The Miami Dolphins find themselves staring at the likelihood of having to rebuild next offseason, in large part because their strategy of bringing in high-priced talent in the name of chasing a title backfired.

It's a strategy the Dolphins had employed to a lesser degree before, with no better example than the signing of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to a mammoth free agent contract 10 years ago.

Looking to make a splash, owner Stephen Ross signed off on a six-year, $114 million contract that included $60 million guaranteed, making Suh the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history at the time.

Former Dolphins linebackers Spencer Paysinger and Jelani Jenkins were on that 2015 Miami team and they recalled on a recent episode of their podcast, "Higher Valleys," the power and influence Suh had from the very start of his Dolphins tenure, sharing an actually pretty amazing story.

Paysinger told the story of Suh calling a meeting during the 2015 season, which saw Miami go 1-3 before head coach Joe Philbin was fired and end up with a 6-10 record.

"This is why it was so memorable, the coaches were in the meeting as well," Paysinger recalled. "Ndamukong gets up there, and I'm not calling on any names, but he pretty much says, 'Hey, I'm gonna be here. I signed this big contract. I'm gonna be here. I have a vested interest in being here, but some of you (expletives) are just mailing it in, coaches included. And he proceeded to go around the room and specifically name players and coaches that were like, either sandbagging it or excelling. You make your players think too much, Coach, let these (expletives) run. And it was something I had never seen before."

Paysinger continues by saying that Suh didn't have negative comments about Jenkins or himself or fellow Kelvin Sheppard, now the defensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions.

"We're all sitting there like gripping the chairs ... so we were sitting in there watching good theater. Like this (crap) is fantastic. And something I had never seen before was coaches damn near pleading their case with a player like, how viable they are to a certain position. There were some coaches like, well, 'Suh, you gotta understand, these things happen.'

"He's trying to tilt the room. Some of y'all are not playing up to par, and if I have it my way, I'm gonna get you the (expletive) up out of here, coaches included. And I had never seen a player wield that much power in person before. It was like watching black Jesus, dog. I was like, 'This is awesome.' "

As Paysinger told the story, the impromptu Suh meeting was followed by position meetings, which became a bit uncomfortable.

"Watching these coaches try to reel back respect from their own players after just getting disrespected in front of everybody, was the most comedic thing ever," Jenkins said.