Should Titans be all in to pursue Ndamukong Suh? Well, duh

Conflicting reports about Ndamukong Suh’s personality greeted his departure from Detroit, with some claiming he was a problem in the locker room, and now that the Miami Dolphins have let him go and he’s on a free agency tour that has included Nashville, there are similar rumblings.

“Suh is about … Suh,” wrote Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald, in a column explaining that the Dolphins cut the star defensive lineman for reasons beyond getting his massive contract off the books. They are focused on “team culture,” Salguero wrote.

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And that’s fine. Every college team and pro franchise talks about it. But let’s remember the No. 1 factor, above all others, in team culture — team performance. We can have a chicken-and-egg debate on this if you’d like, but I promise you that the teams with talent, coaching and victories get along much better than teams that come up short in those areas. Culture can feed winning, of course, but a bunch of nice people who can’t get it done on the field or court or ice will quickly tire of each other.

And let’s be honest about selfishness. Every prominent player in the NFL is a mini-corporation. Every player is, and darn well should be, about that player first. General managers and coaches talk about seeking “team-first” players all the time, but what they’re really seeking is people who aren’t jerks and can get along with others. They’re seeking people who are smart enough to realize that making a positive difference on a winning team can be more valuable than gaudy individual statistics.

“Team first” can’t truly exist in a league so short on career spans and guaranteed money. Or in any pro league, really.

All of which is to say, the Tennessee Titans should be all about signing Suh. And I believe they are. And the only considerations here should be cost and performance. Do your expectations for the latter, for a 31-year-old who is still one of the most dominant linemen in the game, justify his expectations for the former? The price tag will be hefty for a guy who signed a six-year, $114.3 million deal to leave Detroit for Miami in 2015.

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But imagine Suh and Jurrell Casey together on that Titans defensive line for the next few years. Titans GM Jon Robinson just signed Malcolm Butler to a robust deal of $61.25 million over five years, giving his team Butler, Logan Ryan, Adoree’ Jackson and Kevin Byard in the secondary. The presence of Suh — who I’ve always thought would be a great 3-4 end — along with the outside pass rush the Titans still have would make this a feared defense. Maybe an elite one.

It’s an addition that could push this team toward the top of the AFC. Of course, the AFC South alone is getting tougher, defending champ Jacksonville possessing an undeniably elite defense and signing guard Andrew Norwell to bolster its offensive line; Indianapolis scoring a boatload of picks from the Jets to move down from No. 3 to No. 6 in the draft, building anew around quarterback Andrew Luck in anticipation of his healthy return; and Houston adding safety Tyrann Mathieu to that defense and anticipating the healthy return of Deshaun Watson.

Much of the Titans’ trajectory will be tied to the job new coach Mike Vrabel does and the performance of Marcus Mariota in Matt LaFleur’s offense. And that’s what Suh must assess as he evaluates his suitors. He has now visited New Orleans and Nashville, and on Tuesday he was reportedly scheduled to visit the Los Angeles Rams.

If Suh would rather live in Los Angeles and join forces with Aaron Donald — there’s a scary thought — then the Titans will have to move on and replenish the defensive front in the draft. Both teams have plenty of cap room. It may come down to which team Suh believes can ticket him to a Super Bowl in the near future. Which would seem to refute the idea that he’s only interested in the biggest payday at this point.

I know this: The Titans met with him in part to gauge his desire to win. And they’re still in pursuit, which should tell you something. This is a guy who has experienced 60 wins — none in the playoffs — and 71 losses in his eight years in the league. Playing for mostly bad teams in Detroit and Miami.

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That will wear on people, and if those people are high-paid stars they will be targets for after-the-fact chemistry blame. Suh actually had more defenders than detractors after he left Detroit, and there’s never been any evidence that he’s the most reviled of locker-room inhabitants, the “cancer.”

He would be joining a strong locker room in Nashville, with a head coach whose foremost strength is supposed to be keeping them strong. If Suh is in it next fall, the culture should be just fine because winning dictates culture more than anything else.

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.