Lions planning to speak with Ndamukong Suh's agent next week

The original hope this offseason for the Detroit Lions was to get a new deal done with defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh around the time free agency started. That didn't happen, though. Suh ended up changing agents, and that whole process took much longer than expected. As a result, the Lions didn't even have a chance to begin negotiations before free agency opened last week.

So, when will the Lions open contract talks with Suh's new agent? Lions president Tom Lewand said on Wednesday that the plan is to get the ball rolling next week at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando.

Lions president Tom Lewand told WJR this morning he expects to meet with Ndamukong Suh's agent (Jimmy Sexton) in Orlando next week

— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) March 19, 2014

Lewand: "We'll see if we can put a deal together and I'm hopeful we can."

— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) March 19, 2014

Earlier this week, Lewand indicated that Suh has already told the team that he wants to stay in Detroit. As Lewand said, it's just a matter of getting the numbers to match up. The process of getting the numbers to match up could take several months, but at least contract talks are finally set to begin on Suh's new deal.