It's ridiculous to try to quantify the presence of a new defensive lineman before he puts pads on, but the Miami Dolphins are surely going to try.
"Just overall, he's an animal," linebacker Jelani Jenkins said of Ndamukong Suh via the team's official website.
"Besides his athletic ability and just being able to take on double teams and free everybody else up, he's got swag, he's a presence. People are going to look out for him and when they're looking out for him, they're not looking out for other people. Just his whole demeanor and what it brings to the defense, we're going to be tough to run against, pass against and we're going to have a whole attitude to us."
Said Chris McCain, another linebacker: "He's not hard to talk to at all, he's very helpful. If he feels like someone can make a play, he's more willing to put somebody else in a better position than he's thinking about himself. If I'm over there rushing, he'll tell me 'go ahead and do your go-to move, I got your back if you don't make it.' He's not selfish, he's more helpful than anything man and it's just fun being able to talk to him."
While there's probably some level of effort to also repair Suh's public image heading into this season, the Dolphins are doing their best to sell their massive offseason purchase -- not an easy thing to do when that player is a defensive tackle.
The truth is, we won't know how Suh truly impacts this defense for months. There will be the initial plan and there will be the inevitable shift once teams react to whatever it is the Dolphins plan on doing.
In the meantime, we can take solace in the fact that he's "an animal" in shorts and a practice jersey.
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