For three months, Aidan Hutchinson lived the glamorous life of being a top NFL draft pick.
He did autograph signings and made sponsorship appearances and took part in his own longform podcast, and he got paid handsomely to do it.
But the one thing missing, the thing Hutchinson craved most during the pre-draft process — the thing he got back to this weekend for the first time since his college career ended with a national semifinal loss to Georgia on New Year’s Eve — was football.
“This is what I do at the end of the day,” Hutchinson said Saturday on Day 2 of Detroit Lions rookie minicamp. “All that talk, I hate the talk. So there’s been a lot of months of talking, a lot of rah-rah but now we’re out here getting the work in, which is what I do.”
The No. 2 pick in last month’s draft, Hutchinson was the star attraction of the only open practice of the weekend.
He lined up with his hand down at defensive end when the Lions went through a series of play installations at the start of practice. He pummeled a row of stand-up blocking dummies during individual drills. And he took detailed instruction from defensive line coach Todd Wash as he crumbled his 6-foot-7 frame underneath a lineman chute.
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“I know this,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said before practice. “He’s happy to just be playing ball.
“There’s so many things that come into this, especially when you’re where he’s at. These guys are getting ready, they’re taking the visits. You’re going through all these things that have nothing to do with football and nothing to do with being on the grass. I know that he’s just happy to be here and he’s in a classroom learning football. He’s out there, he’s working with Wash and he’s with the guys in the locker room. I can tell that’s his domain and he’s just happy to be doing that. I think this other stuff, he knows he’s got to do it, but that’s not what all this is about. It’s about ball.”
The Lions have made a point in Campbell’s 16 months on the job to fill their roster with players who are nothing if not “about ball.”
That’s the one non-negotiable Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes have clung to as they’ve turned over more than 70% of the roster they inherited from Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn.
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They want players who love football, who crave to be around the game and would do just about anything to make that happen. That’s why they couldn’t contain themselves when the Jacksonville Jaguars took Travon Walker with the No. 1 pick, leaving them to make Hutchinson the cornerstone of their defensive rebuild.
“It worked out great, it was perfect,” Campbell said. “He’s a perfect fit for us. I mean, he really is everything that we’re about and he matches us perfectly and I’ve said this before, but it just so happened to be that he was in (our) backyard. It wasn’t because of that, but that’s icing on the cake there, that he was right down the road. I just feel like it was meant to be. He belongs here and when you’re going to pick guys, particularly that high, they better fit everything that you’re about, and he does that.”
Hutchinson grew up in Plymouth, attended a handful of Lions games in his formidable years and starred collegiately at Michigan football, where his zest to play the game was evident even before last year’s breakout 14-sack season.
He is not the only local product on the Lions’ minicamp roster this weekend. Four of the Lions’ 12 undrafted free agents, Zein Obeid (Dearborn/Ferris State), Kalil Pimpleton (Muskegon/Central Michigan), Nolan Givan (Berkley/Southeast Louisiana) and Cedric Boswell (Beverly Hills/Miami (Ohio)), also have ties to the state, as do a handful of tryout players in camp.
Being local isn’t why the Lions drafted Hutchinson or signed the free agents they did. But it wasn’t just coincidence, either.
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“They understand, I think, the community, they understand the weather, they understand – whether they have directly or indirectly, they kind of understand this organization, somewhat, albeit from afar,” Campbell said. “I think there may be a little more level of pride to it, potentially, with those guys, because it is kind of home base. I don’t think you just pick guys because of that. However, man, if they line up and you’re looking for a jump ball, you’ll take that jump ball. I would.”
As Campbell talked with reporters before practice, he moved his hand in a wavy motion as if to simulate a boat drifting out to sea.
He said the Lions have done everything in their power to avoid “floaters,” players who get “here and he’s just happy to be here and he’s just kind of, there he goes. He’s in the open ocean, just” going with the tide.
The Lions have targeted a more purposeful type, players who are not content to just be along for the ride but who are determined to do something great when they get there.
In Hutchinson, they hope they’ve found that, an impact defender at a premium position who said he feels a sense of responsibility to help lift the Lions from their decades-long funk.
“I definitely feel inspired to get this team going again, but again, it’s not just me,” Hutchinson said. “It’s going to be a group effort, it’s going to take all guys on this team to get this team back to winning so if I can be a piece with that then I’d love to.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.