Undrafted safety Suite makes impression on Lions

The Detroit Lions will add another veteran safety to their secondary today when they officially sign Taylor Mays, but an undrafted rookie at the position, Brian Suite, was one of the surprises of minicamp last week.

Suite, who signed with the Lions for $2,000 out of Utah State, showed steady improvement during off-season workouts and finished camp by taking a handful of reps with the second-team defense.

In the Lions' final practice of spring Thursday -- rookies are still around this week, as part of the NFL's orientation program -- Suite made a favorable impression with two pass breakups, one on a Dan Orlovsky throw to David Ausberry in red-zone drills and another on an Orlovsky swing pass to Zach Zenner in seven-on-seven.

"The biggest thing that's helped me is getting reps, being on the field," Suite said. "You can be in your playbook as much as you want. You can study and talk to the vets, but really, the biggest thing is just getting live reps against the competition up here, which is at a much higher level than I played at before. That's the best thing to do. Just get better by playing with the best."

Suite, a Hawaii native, started three seasons for the Aggies and finished his Utah State career with eight interceptions and 21 pass breakups.

He wasn't invited to the NFL combine but, at a shade over 6-feet-2, impressed scouts with a strong pro-day workout that included a 37.5-inch vertical jump and a reported sub-4.5-second 40-yard dash.

"The biggest thing is like Coach said: Safeties nowadays get paid for intercepting balls," Suite said. "They're not out there getting PBUs, they're out there catching balls. So that's the biggest thing that I've got to do."

Suite is a longshot to make the Lions' 53-man roster, with Glover Quin and James Ihedigbo entrenched as starters and Isa Abdul-Quddus and Don Carey key special teams players. But he plans to spend the next five weeks working out in Hawaii and could have an edge on a practice-squad job when he returns.

"The biggest thing is just continue to improve," Suite said. "You can't stay the same and, with a break like this coming up, you definitely can't afford to get worse. So I'm going to go home, I'm going to be working. I'm going to enjoy it and relax, but I'm going to come back and ready to go."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

Download our free Lions Xtra app on your Apple and Android devices.