Terrell Suggs timeline: How a strange year led the Ravens legend to a Super Bowl with the Chiefs

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MIAMI — Terrell Suggssat down at a table, clad in a bright red jersey and a matching red hat. This is what the 37-year-old edge rusher imagined for himself at this point in hisNFL career, a fresh look with new colors after he had spent 16 years in Ravens purple and black.

The seven-time Pro Bowler shook his head in disbelief, though, when asked by a reporter sitting at the same table whether he could have anticipated that his red hat would feature a Chiefs logo rather than a Cardinals logo, and that his red jersey would feature a Super Bowl 54 patch above his right breast.

"I never in a million years at the end of last year," Suggssaid, pausing before continuing. "Y'all would have been like, ‘Yo, you'll be playing in the Super Bowl with the Chiefs next year.' ... What?!"

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Suggs spent much of his teenage and early adult football life in Arizona, playing high school ball in a Phoenix suburb and setting records in college at Arizona State. He felt a return to the desert upon the expiration of his Ravens contract would be an ideal way to end what likely will be dubbed a Hall of Fame career, so he joined the Cardinals on a one-year deal in free agency. The plan was going smoothly until Arizonacut him just three weeks before the end of the 2019 regular season.

Arizona at the time had just lost its sixth straight game to fall to3-9-1. Suggs technically had started every game, racking up 5.5 sacks in the process, but his role had been reduced as the year progressed. Needless to say, even though he has played sparingly over the last month and a half in Kansas City, Suggs is relieved to have been picked up by the Chiefs.

The relationship is mutually beneficial. Kansas City gets an injection of veteran leadership in its locker room and a situational boost to its pass rush. Suggs gets a trip to the Super Bowl for the second time in his career.

This twist of fate occurred quickly. Below is a timeline that details how the Baltimore legend arrived in Kansas City after his 13-game detourin Arizona.

End of Ravens career

By the time Baltimore's 2018 season ended with a wild-card playoff loss to the LA Chargers, "T-Sizzle" had played in 247 games for the Ravens and recorded a franchise record132.5 sacks. The No. 10 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft and 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year had never even flirted with free agency.

He knew that would change in March of 2019, when the contract extension he signed in 2014 thatpaid him $28.5 million over four years was set to expire.

"You don’t make a decision like that just spur of the moment," Suggs told Sporting News at the Chiefs' Super Bowl hotel. "I just kind of lived with it. Put it down, stopped thinking about it for a while. Was a dad."

Terrell Suggs

The Ravens wanted to keep Suggs, especially since his departure would leave them withMatthew Judon, Tyus Bowser and Tim Williams as the outside linebackers on the roster. Suggs said Baltimore made him "a handsome offer" to return, but he declined.

Instead, what he called "a decision in the last hour" led him to his offseason home.

"It was just time," he said.

Cardinals signing

Suggs told SN the factors that pushed him to Arizona in free agency "had nothing to do with football." That shouldn't be a surprise considering the Cardinals were coming off a 3-13 season, the worst in the NFL, and had not yet drafted quarterback Kyler Murray. They had given KliffKingsbury his first NFL head coaching job just two months prior.