Jim Harbaugh 'proven right': Detroit Lions' Aidan Hutchinson deserved No. 1 NFL draft pick

Aidan Hutchinson is already one of the NFL's best defensive players — in Year 2 of his career.

Detroit Lions fans won't begrudge his draft spot after he fell to No. 2 overall in the 2022 NFL Draft, after the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted Georgia's Travon Walker No. 1.

But Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has kept receipts. He reminded everyone Monday, one day after Hutchinson made an athletic interception against Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, that his former star defensive end deserved to be the top pick in the draft.

“I did comment that Aidan Hutchinson should be the No. 1 pick in the Draft," Harbaugh said. "I think I was right on that one as well. Did you see that interception he made on the screen pass? That one-hander? Wow! So proud of him and the amazing job he's doing. Statistics reflect very well, too, in what he's added to the Lions. Darn exciting to be a football fan in Michigan right now.”

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The Lions' edge rusher ranks first in the NFL with 35 quarterback pressures and has 4½ sacks to start this season. Hutchinson's four career interceptions are second-most by a Lions defensive lineman all-time, and he's one of just four players to log 10 sacks and four interceptions over his first two seasons.

Hutchinson, a former Dearborn Divine Child star, has been a key part of the Lions' ascension the past two seasons, just as he was for the Wolverines in 2021, when U-M reached the College Football Playoff for the first time. Despite Harbaugh's feeling that Hutchinson deserved to go No. 1 overall, he said pre-draft on the HUTCH podcast that he was rooting for him to stay home in Detroit.

“It’s great to have him in our home state,” Harbaugh said in May 2022, just after the draft. “The thing I love about him, and it’s so rare — Aidan Hutchinson should have a big head, and you would not blame him if he did. But he’s the kind of guy that doesn’t when he should. That’s just really awesome when you see that in an athlete or any person, really.”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jim Harbaugh: Lions' Aidan Hutchinson deserved No. 1 NFL draft pick