AP

The Dolphins reportedly will sign defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh on Tuesday. But that doesn’t mean the Lions have given up on keeping they guy they acquired with the second pick in the 2010 draft.

“[They] can’t finalize until Tuesday,” a Lions source told Josina Anderson of ESPN.com. “We will hope he comes to his senses.”

The Lions are right on the first part. Despite Chris Mortensen’s report that the deal will happen, no deal can happen before Tuesday. As one media source has pointed out, the mere existence of the report that Suh will sign with the Dolphins becomes the first time since the NFL adopted the three-day legal tampering period that a report of a deal with a new team has emerged as hard “this will happen” news.

In theory, Suh can stiff arm the Dolphins and return to the Lions. He wouldn’t be reneging, since there’s technically no agreement that he’d be ignoring. And the Lions think that, between now and Tuesday, they can change his mind.

“[The] key is playing for coach [Jim] Caldwell and Teryl [Austin],” the source told Anderson. “Plus good players around him. Can’t get that there.”

It’s a bold move for the unnamed Lions source to insult the Dolphins. Sure, Detroit made it to the playoffs this year, beating Miami by a mere four points along the way. But as overall organizations go, the Lions have pitched a tent in roughly the same band of competitive mediocrity where the Dolphins have resided for years.

It’s also a bold (and foolish) move to provoke Suh by suggesting that he’s out of his mind to want to play in Miami. Maybe if their Lions had come to their senses and offered Suh a year ago whatever they’re willing to offer at a time when Suh has one foot out the door and the other one in the air and crossing the threshold, it never would have gotten to the point where Detroit’s only strategy is to hope Suh’s definition of sanity is to choose less money in a state with no income tax or palm trees.