Aidan Hutchinson on being drafted by Detroit Lions: ‘I’d be the hometown hero times two’

Detroit Free Press

Aidan Hutchinson stayed home to play his college football, and the standout Michigan Wolverines pass rusher is all for doing the same in the NFL.

Hutchinson said on the latest episode of The Adam Schefter Podcast it would “be great” to be drafted by the Detroit Lions.

“I’d be the hometown hero times two,” Hutchinson said. “Never leaving Michigan, really, and I think Dan Campbell, I think he seems like a real good guy to me, just from the outside.

“I know you can’t really judge a coach by what he does in the media, but just seeing what he does and how he treats his players. They won that game (against the Minnesota Vikings) and how his players were all, I mean, they were all (celebrating with him). I think they got a lot of heart on that team and just a couple more pieces to the puzzle and I think they can be a really good ball team.”

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Hutchinson had an All-American season at Michigan, posting a school-record 14 sacks among 15.5 tackles for loss to help the Wolverines make the College Football Playoff for the first time.

A Heisman Trophy finalist, Hutchinson has soared up draft boards this season and is considered a sure top-10 pick.

The Lions, 1-11-1, currently hold the first pick in a draft that is light on star power.

NFL teams are sifting through a quarterback class with no consensus No. 1 player. The Lions could get the chance to work with one or more top quarterbacks at the Senior Bowl in February, but may opt to address their pass rushing need with a player like Hutchinson or Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux.

Thibodeaux had seven sacks and 12 tackles for loss in 11 games this season.

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The Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars, both 2-11, also are vying for the No. 1 pick. The Texans and Jaguars play Sunday in Jacksonville.

“My dad’s from (Houston),” said Hutchinson, whose father, Chris, was an All-American at Michigan. “If I end up on the Texans, I got a lot of connections here so it’d be cool. I was just talking to my parents on Sunday about it. It’s just, it’s kind of nice because I have no control of it so wherever I want to go, it does not matter. So yeah, that’s the kind of nice thing that I was thinking about yesterday.”

Hutchinson said he has studied NFL pass rushers including J.J. Watt, T.J. Watt and Nick and Joey Bosa to prepare for the NFL. The Bosas went second and third in the 2019 and 2016 drafts, respectively, and Hutchinson said, “It’d mean the world” to be drafted in the same area.

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“It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time, something that last year, I knew my ability was that level, was that area of the draft, but they were only slotting me later in the first and somewhere in the second,” he said. “And I kind of heard that draft report last year when I was a junior and I knew if I came back and I just played like I want to play and how I’m able to, I can show that I am worth a top-five pick. So I did that this year, I think, and still got more to come. But I’m just excited that I put myself in this position.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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