Detroit Lions' Aidan Hutchinson off to hot start, has 'more levels to unlock'

Aidan Hutchinson is an edge rusher, and edge rushers are supposed to rush from the edge. That’s what Hutchinson always thought, and that’s the spot he has always been most comfortable playing.

But Detroit Lions senior defensive assistant John Fox opened Hutchinson’s mind to a new way of thinking during training camp this summer.

“John Fox came up to me in camp and he was telling me when Michael Strahan broke the sack record that like half his sacks were on the interior,” Hutchinson said. “He was saying every edge guy, none of them want to rush inside but it can be a lot easier, just depending on how things go, to get production. And after I heard that, I kind of just, I just committed to it. I was like, ‘All right, screw it, dude. I’m going to just listen to the old man and do it.’ And it’s been working out.”

Hutchinson didn’t bother to fact-check Fox math’s on Strahan’s 22.5-sack season from 2002.

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“He could have been (lying), but it felt like old man wisdom,” he said. “It was very like, the universe, it came to me and I was like, ‘All right, I’m going to listen to it and I’m going to ride with it.’”

But four games into the season, Hutchinson has been a disruptive force thanks in part to the versatility he’s shown lining up all over the defensive front.

He’s tied for 10th in the NFL with 3.5 sacks, forced and recovered a fumble to clinch the Lions’ Week 3 win over the Atlanta Falcons and has 11 quarterback hurries, three fewer than he had all last season, according to Pro Football Reference.

Hutchinson has sacks from three different spots on the defensive line: Left defensive end (1.5), right end and right tackle, and one of his sacks at left end came when he looped inside on a stunt and overpowered Green Bay Packers guard Jon Runyan.

He has played as a stand-up rusher and out of a four-point stance, and in last week’s win over the Packers, he rushed as a stand-up nose tackle from a few yards off the ball.

“I like moving around cause I can rush inside and I finally, I feel like I’ve got a lot of confidence with it this year compared to last year and now it’s something that I kind of want to do,” Hutchinson said. “If there’s a not-so-great guard, I want to be the guy to line up on him and attack him and attack the weakness of the O-line.”

Lions coach Dan Campbell indicated in his weekly radio spot Wednesday on 97.1 WXYT-FM that the Lions moved Hutchinson around more than normal against the Packers as a way to combat double teams, and Hutchinson has seen an excessive amount of help tilted his way in the first 21 games of his career.

Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said Thursday that Hutchinson is not being used any different than he was last season, though the Lions are conscious of trying to put him in the best spot to succeed.

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“I come from a place where the saying was, and we even said it here, it’s not what you play, it’s how you play,” Glenn said. “And where I was at, we didn’t have a lot of calls, the guys just executed at a high level and the coaches made sure they put the players in positions to be successful. And really that’s our philosophy here for the most part, so Hutch is going to continue to do what he do and he’s going to play at a high level, that’s just who he is, along with the rest of the players.”

The runner-up for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year last season, Hutchinson has been more consistently impactful this fall, even apart from the sacks.

He had three quarterback hits on Patrick Mahomes in the Lions’ Week 1 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, when the Lions were held without a sack as a team, and he’s played a whopping 91% of the Lions’ defensive snaps this season.

Hutchinson said he spent the spring preparing for an expanded role by tweaking his workout routine and diet. He came to camp 7 pounds heavier than he was as a rookie and is noticeably thicker in the legs.

Glenn compared Hutchinson’s stamina to that of New Orleans Saints star pass rusher Cam Jordan, who topped 90% play time in each of his first six NFL seasons and still plays more than 80% of his team’s defensive snaps at 34 years old.

“He’s a freak of nature when it comes to conditioning, when it comes to understanding, just mentally just on another level. And Hutch is no different,” Glenn said. “Listen, those players don’t come around too often. But in the first two years, he’s been that type of guy. Obviously, you want to manage him, but sometimes a player’s like, ‘Listen, coach, I can go. And that’s just who he is. And man, you do everything you can to alleviate that, but man, when they show you who they are, you allow them to go out there and play.”

Hutchinson has done that, above all else this season — and done it at a high level.

“I’m happy with how I’ve played,” he said. “I feel like I’m getting better every week, too, which is good. But yeah, man, every time I play a game I feel like I get so much better and I’m going to continue to do that and I’m happy with how I played but I still feel like there are way more levels to unlock in this game.”

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Aidan Hutchinson piling up sacks from all over Detroit Lions' D-line