Jamie Samuelsen: Suh Is The Most Valuable Player In Detroit
By: Jamie Samuelsen
@jamiesamuelsen
About a year ago, I undertook one of the most foolish endeavors that I've ever undertaken in this space. I attempted to rank the top ten athletes in Detroit based on how they'd be drafted if all were made available. I considered age and position. For example, quarterback is just a tad more important than punter, so Matthew Stafford would get stronger consideration than Sam Martin. It went so well, and by well I mean horribly, that I decided to try it again.
My point in doing this was to highlight how many exceptional athletes we have playing in Detroit right now. Things were so good last year that Max Scherzer, who was coming off a dominant Cy Young Award season was only good enough to rank seventh. Miguel Cabrera was coming off his second straight MVP season, and he ranked second. Gustav Nyquist hadn't yet taken Red Wing nation by storm, so he didn't even make the list (Spoiler Alert – he makes it this year.)
Just to give you a glimpse of how much things can change in the span of one year, here's my draft order from early November 2013.
1) Stafford
2) Cabrera
3) Calvin Johnson – Lions
4) Justin Verlander – Tigers
5) Ndamukong Suh – Lions
6) Andre Drummond – Pistons
7) Scherzer
8) Jimmy Howard – Red Wings
9) Riley Reiff – Lions
10) Larry Warford – Lions
Stafford was having a great year at the time of the draft and plays the most important position in any sport. Howard was coming off a strong postseason run to the conference semis, and plays a vital position in his own right. Reiff…well I'm not sure what happened there.
All right. Enough defending what happened last year. Heaven knows I'll be doing a lot of defending for what happens this year. Without further ado, here's the draft order for 2014 – taking into account ability, position and potential.
1) Ndamukong Suh – Lions
I agonized over this, but I came to this simple conclusion. Suh is the best player at any position playing right now in Detroit with zero question marks surrounding him. Cabrera hasn't been able to stay healthy and is north of 30. Johnson is clearly slowing down as well. But Suh continues to demand double teams, control the line of scrimmage and terrorize opposing quarterbacks. The Lions are 7-3 right now because of their defense. And there is no question that their best defensive player is Suh. The contract scares me and the Lions future financial health scares me. Do you know what scares me more? Suh playing for a different team.
2) David Price – Tigers
He's young. He's inexpensive. He's left-handed. What's not to like? Depending on how the 2015 season unfolds, the biggest storyline to watch may be Price as trade bait as opposed to Price as an ace. He's a free agent at the end of next season and will command more on the open market than Scherzer is going to get. If the Tigers struggle, look for Dave Dombrowski to pull the trigger and re-stock the system. It's hard to imagine the Tigers doling out another 200-plus million dollar deal while the clocks are just beginning to tick on the deals they gave to Cabrera and Verlander.
3) Miguel Cabrera – Tigers
Cabrera had a down year in 2014. These were his numbers - .313/.371/.524. He led the league with 52 doubles. That's a down year? It is for the best hitter in the game. He fought through injuries once again and still finished ninth in MVP balloting and still put the Tigers on his back at times. We may not see him flirt with a Triple Crown again. But I'd never count him out. If he can rehab this off-season from ankle surgery and come back in 2015 ready to hit from day one, there's no reason why he can't be the most feared hitter in the game once again.
4) Matthew Stafford – Lions
Has there ever been a bigger tease in the history of this city? We know Stafford has the ability. We know he has the weapons around him. We know he shows flashes. But does he have the will and the work ethic and the coaching to move into the elite level of NFL quarterbacks? At this point, we're done waiting. If the Lions fail to win the NFC North or worse yet, miss out on the playoffs altogether, this will fall on Stafford's shoulders as it should. But he remains high on this list because he's a quarterback and because talent and a big arm are intoxicating. There will always be a job for Stafford and there will always be a coach who thinks he can turn him around. I just hope that coach is working with Stafford as you read this.
5) Gustav Nyquist – Red Wings
By far the biggest climb from last year and by far my biggest omission from last year. But in my defense, at this point in 2014, Nyquist was still playing in Grand Rapids. Once Ken Holland put him in Detroit, where he belonged, Nyquist flourished, leading the Wings in goals and finishing second in points. He was a bit of a no-show in the postseason which was concerning. But the Red Wings were so badly outplayed by the Bruins that none of the players really found their stride. This list is based on talent and potential. I'm not sure if there's another athlete on this list that has as much of both as Nyquist does right now.
6) Calvin Johnson – Lions
It doesn't feel very good to downgrade the legends, but that's exactly what's happening here to Calvin. He missed two games in 2013 and has already missed three this season. He still has his Megatron games, like in the opener against the Giants where he had 7 catches for 164 yards and two scores. But he's been dropping some passes for the last two years that he'd never drop before. The NFL voted him the #1 player in the league during the summer. That perch is too lofty for a man who can still dominate, but doesn't do it nearly as frequently.
7) Andre Drummond – Pistons
We have to put a Piston on here. And we have to put Drummond on here. A year ago, I wrote that a #6 ranking for Drummond could be "ridiculously high or ridiculously low." A year later, he's still an enigma. He flourished at times last year, dominated the Rising Stars game at All-Star Weekend and made it onto the USA Basketball team this summer. With new head coach Stan Van Gundy coming in; this was supposed to be Drummond's breakout year. So far, it's been a dud. He can't stay out of foul trouble. He's often on the bench in the fourth quarter. And he just seems glum on the floor. There's too much talent (and height) here to not make the list. But a sure thing doesn't seem like as much of a sure thing this year.
8) Deandre Levy – Lions
Two years ago, Levy was a mediocre linebacker that Lions fans couldn't wait to get rid of. Today, he's a playmaking defender who figures to make the Pro Bowl at the end of the season. Levy is really one of the great transformations that we've ever seen from any athlete in Detroit. It started last season when he began to show up with big tackles and bigger turnovers. This year, under the tutelage of first year defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, Levy has been all over the field. If Suh and Nick Fairley (when healthy) take up offensive linemen, Levy is there to do the rest. And for the most part this season, he's done it.
9) Justin Verlander – Tigers
I'm not giving up on Verlander yet even though a lot of you have. He spent all of last off-season recovering from core muscle surgery. He never got on track in the spring. Then he spent the entire regular season looking to rediscover what he lost. There are still a lot of good years and a lot of good pitches in that arm. Verlander is just too determined and competitive for anyone to think that it's over. But those pitches might not ever hit 98 or 99 again meaning Verlander will have to reinvent himself. It can be done, but it's going to take a giant helping of humility for Verlander to do it. And humility is something that doesn't come in great supply to JV.
10) Danny DeKeyser – Red Wings
Remember, this is a draft about talent and potential and De Keyser has both. It's only his second full season in the NHL and he's already showing signs of expanding his game. Mike Babcock likes him enough to put him on the power play with some regularity, something he'd only done with Niklas Kronwall early in the season. His ice time has risen, he has five assists already and he's a plus-four. DeKeyser has been an adept defenseman since he broke in, but now he's becoming an all-around blue-liner as well. And after the Wings struck out in the off-season looking to upgrade on defense, the improvement of 24- year old De Keyser is a welcome sight.
So there it is. There are some big names not on this list like Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Max Scherzer. That has nothing to do with talent and more to do with age, injury and (in Scherzer's case) impending departure. There are also other youngsters like Nick Castellanos, Tomas Tatar and Larry Warford who have made the list before or will make it in future years. There's (clearly) nothing scientific here and is certainly up for debate.
What do you think? Does Suh go #1? Does Price or Cabrera? What does your list look like?
