Aidan Hutchinson sits on a couch in the Lions’ practice facility, the embodiment of how to nail a draft pick, and also proof of why it is so hard to do. Six months ago, Hutchinson was considered the safest pick in the draft, a high-floor/low-ceiling guy: What you see is what you get. But even the Lions did not really know what they were getting until they got him.
A year ago, Hutchinson finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting after a 14-sack season for Michigan. The scouting report then: terrific pass-rusher, plays his butt off, but not a prospect on the level of Myles Garrett or Nick and Joey Bosa.
The Lions drafted Hutchinson with the second pick. Most people figured he would be a really good player. But after all the talk about how he was probably limited, Hutchinson’s rookie year has been defined by how much he can do. Lions defensive line coach Todd Wash talks about Hutchinson in ways that nobody did just six months ago:
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“He’s just scratching the surface.”
“The sky’s kind of the limit for him.”
“He’s got room to grow. I mean, he isn’t close to where he can be.”
When Hutchinson interviewed agents last winter, most told him they loved his motor, which was exactly what he did not want to hear. He did not go to bed dreaming of making First-Team All-Try Hard. Finally, Mike McCartney of VaynerSports came in and praised his athleticism.
“Right when we heard that, it was like, ‘This is a guy that finally understands,’” Hutchinson says.
Hutchinson had always seen himself as an elite athlete. At the combine, he showed it. His three-cone drill time of 6.73 seconds was the best for any defensive end, and the third-best of all players this year. His 20-yard shuttle time of 4.15 seconds was second-fastest of all players—an incredible feat for a 6'7", 260-pound player. Wash did not expect those numbers. And yet, as Wash says, “There’s tons of athletes walking the streets.” Hutchinson knows how to use every bit of his athleticism.
So much of what could make Hutchinson a special NFL player did not come out at the combine and was not really clear at Michigan, where his role was narrowly defined. Hutchinson says: “My senior year, I was really all out on the edge, 24/7.” One day during Lions training camp, as the team did third-down drills, Wash and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn decided to move Hutchinson inside. Wash says, “AG and I looked at each other after about three snaps … like, ‘Holy s---, we got one here.’ And both of us just put a big old grin on our faces.”
The Lions had some hope that Hutchinson could be a versatile player; Lions general manager Brad Holmes said after the draft that Hutchinson’s freshman play on the interior line was encouraging. But they did not realize he could do so much. Wash says, “He plays big end, he plays small end and he plays over the guards in our pass-rush package. He plays, probably, five positions.” Hutchinson thinks it’s actually six: Two edge spots, two spots inside, both outside linebacker positions.
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Some players have extraordinary athletic gifts but can’t apply them consistently in a fast-moving, complex game. Others are brilliant but get physically overwhelmed. Hutchinson’s brain and body work in concert. The result is a player who seemed to do one thing very well actually does a lot of things exceptionally well. Through Week 16, Hutchinson has seven sacks, the most of any rookie. He is a much better run-stopper now than he was two months ago, let alone in college. Hutchinson doesn’t even remember having a chance at an interception at Michigan. This year, he has picked off two passes, and neither was fluky.
His first one, in October against the Packers, was the product of a mind that can produce order amid chaos. Green Bay went to a fast tempo, and when they got to the goal line, left tackle David Bakhtiari signaled that he was an eligible receiver, but Hutchinson says the referees did not even announce that Bakhtiari was eligible: “In the moment, I was a bit confused.” He was not alone. In the mad rush before the play, the Lions lined up in the wrong defense against the Packers’ formation. Green Bay snapped the ball. Bakhtiari started to block Hutchinson, who bulled past him … and stopped.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” he says now. “You see Aaron [Rodgers] kind of stopping; you kind of feel something coming.”
Hutchinson did a little stutter-step, watched Rodgers throw to Bakhtiari, then turned, ran backward and picked off the pass. It was the real-time in-game application of his three-cone performance.
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“That’s not his responsibility,” Wash says. “It ain’t nothing to do with coaching. He felt something and made a hell of a play. He just feels some stuff at times. I don’t know how he did it, and I’m not even gonna ask him. He has a totally different awareness than a lot of players that I’ve ever coached.”
Hutchinson says, “I don’t know if I can break down my thinking in that moment. Everything happens in a split second. You don’t have individual thoughts.”
In New York the next month, the Lions called a nickel blitz against the Giants, which meant Hutchinson had to drop back “in the throwing window,” he says. He crouched a bit so quarterback Daniel Jones wouldn’t see him, then leaped up and caught Jones’s pass.
And in between those two picks, he forced another one. Hutchinson pushed past Bears tight end Cole Kmet and had a clear and direct path to Chicago quarterback Justin Fields—so clear and direct, in fact, that he didn’t trust it. Wash says, “He started rushing and goes, ‘Tight ends don't just let me go.’ He came off, played underneath the tight end and [forced] a high throw. Most guys just keep rushing the quarterback.” Jeff Okudah intercepted Fields’s pass for Kmet and returned it for a touchdown.
These are not just exciting plays. They are the difference between winning and losing games, and they help explain why the Lions have gone from 1–6, to 7–7 and in the playoff hunt. Wash says, “We call it the spidey sense, like, ‘What the f--- did you do? What did you see right there, Hutch?’”
“He’s constantly willing to adjust and change during a game,” Wash says. “We see it on the sideline, but we’re not out there. And when you have a really intelligent player, they can communicate that to us, and we can get it set. It’s not always the case. You know, they might [say], ‘I’m not sure … they’re kind of doing it.’ He knows what they’re doing to him.”
Before the season, Hutchinson’s father, Chris, a former All-American at Michigan, suggested he fill notebooks with how teams play him, so he could start building files on opposing players and coaches. Recently, Chris stopped by Aidan’s house and saw a notebook on the coffee table. The father knew better than to say: Just as I told you to do. But he was pleased.
Most NFL players have been playing the game for a good chunk of their lives. Hutchinson has long studied it, too. When he was in college, he and his father would break down the film of every play together. When he watched the Michigan–Ohio State game with his dad this year, he was calling out the Buckeyes’ plays before the snap.
Football fans understand watching video is a requirement, but they often don’t think about it as a skill. Wash says, “A lot of people watch tape; it’s like watching a movie. You gotta study tape.”
Hutchinson understands this instinctively. It’s not the time he puts in that matters. It’s what he accomplishes in that time.
“I don’t give myself a number,” Hutchinson says of how much film he watches every week. “I do it till I feel confident and until I feel good, because if you give yourself a number then you might be watching mindlessly, just to get to that certain number.”
Hutchinson takes his ability to dissect a play onto the field with him. Partway through the season, he asked Lions coaches to let him operate out of a two-point stance more, primarily because it allows him to see more.
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The NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year debate is fun but ultimately not that important. The Jets’ terrific cornerback Sauce Gardner will probably win it. But the Lions are not asking for any draft do-overs. Chris says, “When you get that hustle-guy [label], it’s hard to get over that.” Aidan is making people get over it. How many NFL players can beat left tackles from the edge, stone running backs inside, and drop back and pick off passes?
“A lot of times you get some of these pass rushers, and everybody [says], ‘You’ve got to play him more,’” Wash says. “Well, no, you don’t, because they’re [only] a pass rusher.”
Wash snickers at the idea that the Lions might be giving Hutchinson too much: “No, no, no, no, no. He very seldom makes a mistake twice.”
He also wants everything they give him. Hutchinson is keenly aware of his public platform and marketability, but it does not inhibit his play. One reason the Lions can move him around is that he wants to move around, even though it means fewer opportunities to pad his sack total, which is how the public will judge him.
“It’s never about him,” Wash says. “And usually with pass rushers, it is. Pass rushers, wideouts and DBs—there’s usually some high maintenance in there.”
There you go: Add low-maintenance to the list of Hutchinson’s attributes. Just put it pretty low down on the list. That’s how he wants it.
