Aidan Hutchinson and the Detroit Lions are due to sit down at the negotiating table soon. The star pass rusher is eligible for an extension on his current rookie scale deal with the team, while the Lions are seemingly playing the waiting game with him as they look to see how he bounces back to start the 2025 season after breaking his leg in 2024.
Early returns on Hutchinson's performance so far in training camp would suggest that he's set to have a similar - if not better - season akin to his 2024 games. 7.5 sacks in just 4.5 games was absurd to see from Hutchinson. We might see even better from the sudden Defensive Player of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year candidate.
Still, general manager Brad Holmes has provided another update about their extension talks with the star defender, and the update is much of the same: the Lions and Hutchinson simply haven't gotten into any serious extension talks.
Hutchinson, Holmes haven't gotten deep into negotiation talks
Holmes told 97.1 The Ticket on Monday that he has yet to get into the nitty gritty of extension talks with Hutchinson.
"We’ll definitely get some dialogue going soon here, but those things take time, especially the larger the deal is," said Holmes about getting something done with Hutchinson.
Hutchinson could be looking at a massive offer considering how much some other star pass rushers have gotten on the market just this offseason alone. Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett signed a new deal with the team for four years and $160 million. Pittsburgh Steelers pass rusher T.J. Watt just got an extension worth $123 million over three years.
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Disgruntled pass rushers still on the market include Trey Hendrickson and now Micah Parsons, which more so speaks to the cheapness of those respective players' franchises than what their talent is worth. Both could easily net similar deals to that of Garrett and Watt - the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys simply don't want to pay them.
The Lions cannot afford to make that same mistake. They have a ton of cap flexibility this season, but as we get into 2026 and 2027, things severely tighten up with other extensions set to kick in for players like Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown. Hutchinson can and will command a deal somewhere in the range of Garrett and Watt's contracts.
Whether Holmes is open to cutting lose some other high earning playmakers in the process of keeping Hutchinson on board is up the air.