Aidan Hutchinson is ruining the Lions’ practices by being too good.
Lions reporter Tim Twentyman wrote that the edge rusher has been so dominant for much of training camp that head coach Dan Campbell has had to adopt the “Hutch rule” to allow the offense to get its reps in unimpeded.
When Hutchinson beats his man off the line in team periods and has a likely sack, which has been a frequent occurrence, the coaches don’t blow the whistle as they typically would and instead allow the offense to continue the rep.
“If you can’t block Hutch and he’s going to blow every practice up, then that’s not good either,” Campbell said Wednesday.
By the sounds of it, the offense wouldn’t be getting much work in if Campbell didn’t implement the Hutch rule.
While disruptive for the offense in training camp, Hutchinson’s dominance is certainly a welcomed sight for the Lions, as he’s coming off a gruesome season-ending leg injury in which he broke his tibia and fibula.
As just a third-year player last season, Hutchinson was leading the NFL with 6.5 sacks through four games when he went down with a broken leg. He suffered the injury while adding an additional sack to his tally.
Despite appearing in just five games, he still wound up as Detroit’s sack leader across the entirety of the season with 7.5.
Hutchinson had 40 quarterback pressures in those five games as well, which was 11 more than the next highest total across the league at the time.
If the 24-year-old can return to a similar level of production, the Lions’ defense — which got torched for 45 points by the Commanders in a playoff loss last season — would be in a much better position.
He was up there as a top defensive player in the league when his season was ended, and if the Hutch rule at training camp is any indication of where he’s at in his comeback, he may be one of the league’s best once again.
The Lions visit the division rival Packers in Week 1 on Sept. 7.