To nobody’s surprise, Detroit Lions edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson is the team leader with 4.5 sacks. In addition to that, his 48 quarterback pressures are second-best in the NFL. Despite that production, Hutchinson hasn’t recorded a sack in four straight games.
In his young NFL career, it’s the longest streak he’s had without a sack.
That said, Hutchinson is still playing at a high level for the Detroit Lions defense. This week, he matches up against a Chicago Bears offensive line that has given up 30 sacks this year (7th-worst in the NFL).
When looking back at his last game against the Los Angeles Chargers, you can still see the motor running hot when he steps onto the field. Additionally, he’s very close to going off. Let’s jump into the film room to see how well Hutchinson is playing for the Lions.
Going back to the tape against the Chargers, one thing that immediately stands out with Hutchinson is that he was dropping into coverage more. That could be a sign for things to come but there’s also credit due to Aaron Glenn for trying anything and everything with his defense.
That said, we want to focus on the play above where Hutch is aligned in a wide-9 technique (outside shoulder of a tight end). On this play, the Lions are only going to rush four defenders. One of the keys to watch is how much depth (pause at 7 seconds), Hutchinson is getting into the pocket. All of the other defenders are playing at the line-of-scrimmage.
When watching Hutchinson, he makes good initial contact where it looks like he’s trying to attempt some speed-to-power. His initial punch knocks the right tackle back. As the right tackle tries to fight back, Hutchinson counters inside with a terrific spin move. Even though he’s close to sacking the quarterback, he’s a step too late. However, this forces Justin Herbert to throw off a bad base and it causes the pass to be higher than it needs to be.
Moving to the next play, the Chargers come out in a shotgun formation with their 11 personnel (one tight end and one running back). Aligned in a 9-technique (outside shoulder of the tight end), you will see Hutchinson. On his rush, he uses speed-to-power and trusts that the combination will be enough to get the quarterback.
While he doesn’t bring the quarterback down, he forces Herbert out of the pocket. Unfortunately, the quarterback extends the play and just makes a great throw for the first down.
Particularly in this game, it felt like Hutchinson aligned much wider. I think part of that was to prevent him from getting chipped by the tight end and the hope was that he’d have more free releases to the quarterback. The only downside is that Hutchinson then has a longer path to get to the quarterback. As we saw in the game, he threatened the pocket but just seemed to be a step late almost every time. Sometimes that just how this game goes.
Moving to the last play, Hutchinson is once again aligned in a 9-technique (outside shoulder of the tight end). Rather than focusing on the pass-rush, I wanted to pay close attention to this run stop from Hutchinson.
Prior to the snap, the tight end exit motions to the right and with that, Hutchinson slides inside a step or two. Once the ball is snapped and the play starts to develop, it appears to be a quarterback zone read or potentially an inside zone run.
Either way, Hutchinson does a great job staying square to the line-of-scrimmage and bending to the football. He makes a great tackle on Austin Ekeler and it leads to a limited gain. This type of play and overall technique from Hutchinson will be key as the Lions get ready to play a team such as the Bears with Justin Fields at quarterback. In that game, he will have to be patient but also play disciplined football so Fields doesn’t get to hit the open field consistently.
Overall, Hutchinson is a key part to the Lions success this year. I know there are times that it feels like he’s hitting a spin move too frequently or is just getting doubled or tripled team. However, he’s still playing at a high level and it feels like he’s very close to having a big game. Potentially a statement game. It could be one of those games where he reminds everyone how good he really is. Could it happen this week against a Bears football team he’s had plenty of success against? I think so.