Ndamukong Suh continues to elicit contrasting opinions from players and personnel men around the NFL.
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The Detroit Lions defensive tackle has the attention and respect of this week's opponent, the Green Bay Packers, but not everyone's on board.
Packers right guard Josh Sitton described Suh to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as an "all-business" defender, adding: "It's legit. He's a good football player. People have been saying he's slumping or had a sophomore slump last year. But it's all media."
Not all media.
One NFC scout told the newspaper that Suh "is one example of a football culture that coddles elite players and does not force them to push themselves for fear that the player will tune you out. We complain at this level that finding leaders is a difficult task, but leadership is, as Eddie Robinson once said, fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you. For a player like Ray Lewis, he demands so much of himself and is willing to push himself, that when he confronts a teammate over work ethic, the player has no choice but to respect him."
The scout continued: "Players like Suh do not demand excellence of themselves because they believe they can be excellent just by walking on the field. These players will underachieve by comparison to expectations."
The scout explained that Suh was labeled "dominant" out of the gate but hasn't learned how to turn it on "play in and play out." Suh has, indeed, been streaky this season, but it's easy for an anonymous scout to shred a player. The Lions behemoth has a perception problem: We see him peddling Subway sandwiches alongside Michael Phelps during the commercial break of a game featuring Suh twisting off Jay Cutler's head.
Bank on this: He's on the Packers' radar. He haunts the dreams of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. And Suh, who was credited with another sack Wednesday because of a scoring change, still has plenty of time to prove his shadowy critics wrong.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
