Mike McCarthy on Ndamukong Suh leaving division

Ndamukong Suh is headed to South Beach, which is bad news for a Detroit Lions team that has to figure out how to replace him.

But it's very good news for the rest of the NFC North.

"I'm trying to teach my 6-year-old to do a cartwheel right now," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "Not that I'm doing any.

"But I thought it was a win-win. It was good to see him leave the division, and it was great to see Joe Philbin improve his football team."

Philbin is a former Packers offensive coordinator who now coaches the Dolphins. He said this week at the NFL owners meetings that Suh was his team's top priority, and they got their man.

Miami came to terms with Suh on a $114 million deal two days before the start of free agency, though Philbin denied the NFL was investigating the Dolphins for tampering.

Detroit has acquired Haloti Ngata and Tyrunn Walker to replace Suh and Nick Fairley. Although both players have ability, neither can intimidate an offense quite like Suh.

Chicago was so conscious of him that it drafted guard Kyle Long specifically to be a so-called "Suh-stopper." Not that it helped much.

And Suh had some of the most notable games of his career against the Packers, racking up 4.5 sacks and one safety in 10 career games. He also drew a two-game suspension for stomping on Evan Dietrich-Smith's leg in 2011, and a one-game suspension for twice stepping on Aaron Rodgers' leg in the 2014 season finale.

That latter suspension, which would have cost Suh a playoff game, was later appealed down to a $70,000 fine.

Lions coach Jim Caldwell, taking questions for the first time since Suh's departure, says he'll miss Suh's toughness and ability in the middle of his second-ranked defense.

"He's a great player, there's no question about it," Caldwell said. "That's one of the things that creates some difficulty. But in our particular case, he was great for us -- did a tremendous job. I'm certain he'll do the same thing for Miami."