Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

Ndamukong Suh is screaming toward free agency while playing maybe the best football of his career, but the All-Pro defensive tackle insisted Wednesday that his agent, Jimmy Sexton, will have final say over who he signs with this off-season.

"It'll be Jimmy's decision, so we'll go with that," Suh said. "You can call Jimmy if you want to."

Asked whether he meant that Sexton will pick what team he plays for next year, Suh said, "Probably will. Yup."

Suh's back-and-forth with reporters came when he was asked during his weekly news conference about the possibility of playing his final home game as a Lion on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.

Suh's rookie contract voids five days after the Super Bowl, and he's seeking a new one that will make him the highest-paid defensive player in the league.

Sexton declined comment Wednesday on contract talks that have been dormant since July.

"I don't think about things like (this being my final home game)," Suh said. "I think, most important, we've got to go out there and get a win and kind of go from there."

In five seasons with the Lions, Suh has established himself as one of the NFL's most dominant defensive players. He has 33 career sacks, including 5.5 this year, and is the biggest reason the Lions (9-4) have the NFL's second-ranked defense.

"All you have to do is turn on the film and I think everybody that plays against us can see what kind of an impact he has on a ball game," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. "He's a wrecking crew that most people don't leave him alone."

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer called Suh "one of the best (defensive tackles) of all time" in a teleconference with Detroit reporters Wednesday.

"Definitely appreciate it," Suh said. "Tell him I said thank you. But I've got a long way in my career to go. I think I have an opportunity to play at a high level and maybe be seen as an elite player in this league, but I'm very young and still got a lot of things to learn, and that's my focus."

As dominant as he's been on the field, Suh, the second pick of the 2010 NFL draft, has been a bit of an enigma off it the last few years.

He burst into the NFL with a 10-sack rookie season, then twice was voted the league's dirtiest player.

In 2011, Suh was suspended two games for stomping on the arm of an opponent on Thanksgiving, and to date he's been fined eight times in his career for more than $216,000.

Considered aloof even among teammates early in his career, Suh has emerged from his cocoon recently.

Last year, he was voted a team captain and lent rookie Ziggy Ansah a car for a period of time in the months after the draft, and this year he's been more visibly involved with teammates, providing snacks for their defensive line meetings and ugly Christmas sweaters for the unit's holiday photo.

"It surprised me that he may have been perceived that way before I got here just because of the person that he is," first-year Lions defensive end Darryl Tapp said. "He may not open up to the media or outside people too much, but to everybody in this locker room and this organization, he's an awesome person."

Suh declined to answer a question Wednesday about how much he'd miss Detroit if Sunday is in fact his last home game because "it's not something that I look forward to having to deal with."

He mentioned "wins" and "Thanksgiving" as his best Ford Field memories so far, and said he wants to be remembered for always playing "on a high level."

"So that's going to be my goal (Sunday), just like last week, the week before that," Suh said. "No matter where we're at, I want to play at a high level and impose my will, have teams focus on me, free other people up — at the same time, make plays."

Caldwell wouldn't speculate on whether Sunday will mark Suh's final game at Ford Field as a Lion, and Suh didn't want to go down that road, either.

"No clue," he said. "It's not my decision."

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