It is all about whether he is a defensive end or a linebacker.
OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Terrell Suggs filed a grievance against the Baltimore Ravens over whether he should be classified as a defensive end or a linebacker, a dispute in which $814,000 is at stake.Based on Suggs playing defensive end a majority of downs last season, a good argument can be made that is his position now. What Suggs position was when he was drafted doesn't seem relevant.Suggs wants to receive the $8.879 million one-year salary for the defensive end franchise tag designation. The Ravens assigned Suggs the $8.065 million franchise tag for linebackers, the average of the top five linebackers' salaries in the NFL.
An arbitration hearing before an NFL special master to resolve the issue hasn't been scheduled.
Suggs contends he played more than 50 percent of his snaps at defensive end last year. When the Ravens used the tag on Suggs on Feb. 19, general manager Ozzie Newsome countered that argument.
"Well, in our defense, Terrell has always been an outside linebacker, was drafted as an outside linebacker and that's why he was designated as such," Newsome said.
Newsome added that Suggs was twice voted to the Pro Bowl as a linebacker and plays linebacker in the team's base defense.
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