Aidan Hutchinson earns elite PFF grade after undressing the Rams' offensive line

The Detroit Lions pass rush was not a one-man show in the season opener against the Los Angeles Rams, with three players posting at least five pressures of Matthew Stafford (according to Pro Football Focus) and the team registering 27 pressures total. That one man did lead the way, just no as dramatically as he did last season.

Aidan Hutchinson had one of the Lions' two sacks of Stafford. He also registered 11 pressures, four quarterback hits and six hurries. He had a pass-rush win rate of 47.7 percent (48.3 percent win rate in "true pass sets", as determined by PFF).

PFF's Twitter graphic has Hutchinson's overall Week 1 pass rush win rate at 48.8, but that's a 0.1 percent distinction which doesn't make a real difference.

Hutchinson won nearly half of his pass rush snaps on Sunday night (22 out of 46, using PFF's data). Diving a notch deeper, half of those "wins" resulted in a pressure on Stafford.

Of course the caveat here is the Rams were thin along the offensive line going into the game, and got further injury-thinned during the game. But you still have to get it done when the matchup is good, and Hutchinson did.

Aidan Hutchinson posts elite PFF grade for Week 1 performance

Among all edge rushers in Week 1 (with the Monday night game to go as of this writing), Hutchinson has the second-best overall grade (94.0, behind only T.J. Watt-95.3). Hutchinson's pass rush grade (95.7) is the best among Week 1 edge rushers, and Micah Parsons tied him for the most pressures at the position (the aforementioned 11). That 94.0 grade was also the best on the team overall for the week.

Hutchinson will have a far greater challenge in Week 2 when he goes against Tampa Bay Buccaneers' left tackle Tristan Wirfs. But in two matchups against Tampa Bay last year (Week 6 and the Divisional Round), Hutchinson was not lined up on the defensive right side very much (25 of 107 total defensive line snaps, according to PFF), so as to take advantage of a naturally better matchup on the other side.

That was not a departure from Hutchinson's alignment last season. He lined up on the left side far more often than the right side. However, that flipped in Week 1, with Hutchinson lining up on the right side for 47 of his 70 snaps (per PFF). So we may see a good bit of Hutchinson against Wirfs in Week 2.

Any snaps where Hutchinson goes 1-on-1 with Wirfs next Sunday will be must-see, as two of the best at their positions go against each other.