As the Lions' defense lined up for the team portion of practice and music thumped through the speakers Monday morning in Allen Park, No. 97 in white swayed to the beat. Then he tore after the quarterback as Jared Goff rolled out to his right and chucked a ball downfield for Jameson Williams that was swatted away by Kerby Joseph. There will be time for sack dances for Aidan Hutchinson. For now, "the gratitude is off the charts."
"When you come back from not playing football for nine months, it’s so much fun to be back out here with the boys, rushing the passer, stopping the run," Hutchinson said Monday on Fox 2 Detroit's Training Camp Special after the Lions' second practice of training camp. "It all feels really great."
More importantly, it feels natural. A year after Hutchinson fractured his fibula and tibia, which eventually shattered Detroit's Super Bowl dreams, the only sign of the injury is a black compression sleeve on the lower half of his left leg. Otherwise, Hutchinson's return to action has "all felt very seamless," he said. He completed rehab a couple months ago, then cranked up the dial on preparing his body for his fourth NFL season.
"When you’ve been training for nine months, you can imagine that I’m probably in the best shape I’ve ever been in, in the NFL, so it’s a good sign," Hutchinson said. "I feel strong, I feel fast, I feel conditioned and I’m out here with another year of mental experience. In your brain, the game is so slow now. And I really feel like in this fourth year, there’s another level to it."
The work will soon pay off. Just look around the league. The market for edge rushers was reset three times this offseason alone, first by Maxx Crosby at $35 million per year, then by Myles Garrett at $40 million and most recently by T.J. Watt at $41 million. Hutchinson smiled: "It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?" He knows he could be next -- unless he'd prefer for Micah Parsons to go first -- with the Lions aiming to extend him before 2026.
"It’s awesome. Really, it’s great for the market," he said. "I feel very blessed that I’m in such a position of high value."
And of high power. While Hutchinson doesn't boast the same resume as Crosby, Garrett or Watt, he's clearly one of the best players at one of the most premium positions in the game. And at 24 -- at least three years younger than each of the aforementioned trio -- his best is yet to come. Hutchinson looked destined for Defensive Player of the Year last season as it was, leading the NFL in sacks and quarterback pressures by a wide margin at the time of his injury. $40 million per year represents the floor of his next deal.
On the field, Hutchinson is more interested in his ceiling.
"As you can probably assume, mentally, I’m coming for it all," he said. "As a team, we’re coming for it all. It’s the expectation at this point, and that’s what people believe that we can do. Regardless of what people think, though, the belief inside this building is very strong and we’re out here putting in the work to justify that belief."
The Lions failed to reach their ceiling last season due to a rash of injuries on defense. Along with Hutchinson, they lost his counterpart on the other end of the line in Marcus Davenport, his complement on the interior in Alim McNeill, who won't be back for a few more months, and another capable pass-rusher in Derrick Barnes (among others in the front seven). It ultimately caught up to them in the playoffs, where they were torn apart by Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, with a little help from their own offense.
A day after the Lions revealed that defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike is already out for this season, Hutchinson admitted that "it hurts not having a lot of those core guys out there, especially Alim. Me and Alim have been playing next to each other for years now, so I’m definitely checking in on his rehab every day, making sure he’s progressing well."
At the same time, said Hutchinson, "I’m really just focused on my health, being out there for the guys and trying to be a leader, with whoever else is out there with me." That includes Davenport, who showed the Lions enough in two games across from Hutchinson last season to earn another crack at it this year, despite his troubling injury history. He's a 6'6, 285-pound pocket-crusher who, if he stays on the field, can help Hutchinson get home to the quarterback.
"I feel so great with Marcus out there with me and to be back together on the field, we have a great connection," Hutchinson said. "I feel like he’s one of the best edge rushers I’ve ever worked with. He’s really such a freak. From a defensive end perspective, when I see Marcus on the other side of me, it’s like, I know he’s going to be hunting, too."
Their game is quarterbacks. The aim for the Lions is the ending that eluded them last season, starting now.