The Lions suffered a 20-16 home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, but personally, Aidan Hutchinson had a winning day. Detroit’s third-year defensive end finished the game with a career-high 4.5 sacks, just one sack shy of tying the franchise's single-game record.
Hutchinson began the season with the sixth-shortest odds to win Defensive Player of the Year at +1100. At that time, Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons was the favorite at +550, followed by Maxx Crosby (+650), T.J. Watt (+650), Nick Bosa (+650), and Myles Garrett (+700).
After Week 1, Hutchinson’s odds increased to +1200, but following his impressive Week 2 performance, they have dropped to +350. He now leads BetMGM’s Defensive Player of the Year market with 14.4% of the total tickets placed on him and 11.3% of the handle.
Despite Hutchinson being the odds leader, Watt has attracted the highest percentage of tickets (16.8%) of all players, while Crosby has drawn the highest handle percentage (19.6%) and remains the book's biggest liability.
Currently, there is more value in betting on Parsons (+600), Garrett (+900), and Crosby (+900) than on Hutchinson. However, this market is highly fluid, and there will likely be opportunities to bet on the Lions' edge rusher at a better price in the future.
Hutchinson leads the league with 5.5 sacks and 17 total tackles and is tied with Crosby and Alontae Taylor for the most tackles for loss, with five. He also boasts a 95.0 Pro Football Focus PFF pass-rush grade this season, the highest in the league.
PFF also notes that Hutchinson’s pass-rush grade of 91.4 since entering the league is the fourth-best among all edge defenders during that span. The only players ahead of him are Garrett (95.6), Parsons (93.9), and Bosa (92.8) — with both Garrett and Bosa being past Defensive Player of the Year winners.
As things stand, Hutchinson is on pace to win the award, and if he continues this performance, he could run away with it. However, these awards aren’t decided in September and it’s going to be hard for him to continue at this pace. Other players will likely have similar stretches of success throughout the year that will shorten their odds while Hutchinson's lengthens. I would suggest waiting a few weeks to see if that happens so you can bet on Hutchinson at a better price.
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