Terrell Suggs: Playing with Patrick Mahomes is ‘hard to turn down’
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs put a waiver claim in on Terrell Suggs hoping he would be willing to join. It turns out that wasn’t a problem.
When the Arizona Cardinals released veteran pass rusher Terrell Suggs late last week, the future Hall of Famer stated that he was hopeful he would be able to return to the Baltimore Ravens, the very franchise with which he joined the NFL nearly two decades prior. Once the waiver process was over, the Ravens, as it turned out, had never put in a claim and four new contenders tried to grab him for the stretch run.
The winning claimant was the Kansas City Chiefs, a team who with an immediate need for Suggs’ talents to disrupt the passer given recent injuries to Alex Okafor and Emmanuel Ogbah. The only question was whether or not Suggs would be willing to join a brand new team at the age of 37. In fact, some Ravens fans were confident he would never show up in K.C.—that he’d likely retire or hold out than report to a new roster.
It turns out that Suggs said “it was hard to turn down” the opportunity with the Chiefs. In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, the same day as his first practice with K.C., he had nothing but good things to say about the turn of events.
"“It’s hard to turn down [playing with] the reigning MVP [Patrick Mahomes] and a playoff team and just the exciting things they’re doing, this atmosphere.”“Hopefully I can come in and contribute right off the bat,” Suggs said. “This was a team that was a penalty away from the Super Bowl last year, so they’re not missing much. Hopefully I can add that extra addition that we can kind of potentially do something special.”"
Okafor and Ogbah were both lost for the season with torn pectoral muscles in the last few weeks, taking away two of the more productive defensive ends on the roster. The addition of Suggs keeps the Chiefs from having to force Chris Jones outside so often and gives security behind Tanoh Kpassagnon, who likely slides into more meaningful snaps as the postseason nears.
Suggs will have two regular season games within which he can prepare for the postseason. The Chiefs travel to face the Chicago Bears on Sunday and then face the Chargers in Week 17.