There are a lot of things the Ravens should be worried about between now and the start of the 2008 season. Keeping Terrell Suggs long term should not be one of them. If it is - or if it becomes one - they have no one to blame but themselves.
But give the Ravens the benefit of the doubt on this, as in most issues of this nature. Signing Suggs to a contract that will make him and the franchise content seems easy to do. There's so little standing between them and financial bliss, not even the extra $800,000-plus Suggs wants to be paid this season because he believes he should have been franchised as a defensive end.
It's not a small or insignificant amount. But it's also not big enough or significant enough to prevent the Ravens and Suggs from resolving it. It's not even a matter of the two sides making peace. It's barely even a matter of there being two sides. And as for making peace, it's hard to imagine a negotiation in the NFL, particularly one that involves the routinely contentious franchise tag, being more peaceful.
Thank Suggs for that. The Ravens should. They should reward him for it, too.
Sure, giving a pro athlete credit for not being a pain in the rear during contract negotiations is roughly akin to slapping him on the back for not lying anymore about his steroid use. However, Suggs' calm, reasoned stance comes off as genuine.
It would have been wrong from the start to presume that Suggs would approach contract talks the way he approached referee Mike Carey in that 2005 game in Detroit, as Carey memorably described it that day, "with malice in his heart." Suggs isn't even that kind of player on the field anymore. He had fewer sacks in 2007, yes, but also fewer overreactions, fewer overly aggressive acts and fewer dumb penalties. How about that? He wasn't frozen in time as a rambunctious 20-year-old, after all.
Off the field? Suggs' words and demeanor so far ought to earn him points in this round of talks. Sometimes, there really is nothing wrong with applauding someone who brings perspective to a situation that almost always produces none of it. In past offseasons, you didn't see the Asante Samuelses or Walter Joneses (or Chris McAlisters) of the world saying things like, "I had an average to slightly-above-average season," the way Suggs described 2007 to The Sun's Mike Preston this week.
Or hear them admit their disappointment about being franchised while adding, "But this also keeps me in a Ravens uniform, and this is just another way of eventually getting it done."
That's a good, levelheaded reaction, especially considering that Suggs is right when it comes to which position designation he deserves.
You can split hairs, as Suggs is, over how many snaps he took at defensive end and at outside linebacker, or over what he was listed as for every start. The truth is that he played both positions, and as a loyal participant in Rex Ryan's quarterback-baffling schemes, he regularly lined up one way and executed another.
Even without factoring in who was missing on defense last season (Adalius Thomas, Trevor Pryce), the job required being a hybrid player, and being a great one. Last season, Suggs was only a good one, occasionally a very good one, a few times an invisible one. He probably should have been franchised at both salaries combined. One can hardly ignore that only five players have more sacks than Suggs since he came into the NFL, and all of them are, yes, defensive ends.
It would have been a show of good faith - albeit a show of economic recklessness, considering the Ravens' salary cap situation - to designate him at the higher figure.
It will be a similar show of good faith if Suggs and his people don't pin the Ravens to the wall about it and choose to stay on the high road.
This is a speed bump in the talks, not a brick wall. Whichever way the position designation goes, the winning side should make the appropriate concession in a long-term contract. If all stays as it is now, with Suggs getting the lower salary, that means he should get a little extra when the time comes.
Done deal. Shake hands, fellas. Smiles, everybody, smiles! (A reference to the old Fantasy Island for you young whippersnappers out there.)
And now that that's settled, Ravens, go figure out what to do at quarterback.
david.steele@baltsun.com
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