The Detroit Lions' pass rush has been stellar to begin the 2025 season, and much of that success rests on the shoulders of one Aidan Hutchinson. The fourth year veteran - who is really only in his third year, thanks to a horrible broken leg that landed him out for much of the 2024 season - has begun to wake up in recent weeks.
That's a scary prospect for quarterbacks that don't fully trust their offensive lines, and for linemen who might've seen his slow performance in Week 1 and figured they'd finally caught a break against Detroit's defense. His five sacks, three forced fumbles, and 31 total pressures on the year have him touching the top of the EDGE group in the NFL. He's also only just getting started.
ESPN feels the same way. Seth Walder, an analytics writer at the network, says of Hutchinson that a way-too-early prediction for the pass rusher that he had made could still come true. That prediction?
"Edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson will record at least 100 pass rush wins, something that has happened only twice since the metric was created in 2017."
ESPN predicts Hutchinson will be 3rd player since 2017 to hit this mark
Walder says that fans can still look forward to Hutchinson hitting this milestone because of how quickly he's managed to pick up from that Week 1 general disasterclass by the Lions. He's currently tied for second in the league in sacks, and has looked nearly unstoppable for four games straight.
"So why still a chance? Hutchinson took a couple of games to get going -- which is understandable, considering he was returning after the season-ending broken leg he suffered a year ago -- and has shown in the past that he's capable of putting up huge numbers in streaks (like when he recorded 36 pass rush wins through five games last season)."
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His next few outings are going to be tough. The Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers both have extremely solid offensive lines around their respective signal callers, and two mobile quarterbacks that tend to escape the pocket with some finesse. It's going to take a ton of chasing down on Hutchinson's part to keep his momentum going ahead of the Lions' Week 8 bye.
It's doable, though. The Lions grounded Lamar Jackson, and Hutchinson can very well do the same against Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield. That's mostly because of how good the rest of the Lions' pass rush has been this year - who would've thought that?