The Detroit Lions need a big year out of Aidan Hutchinson and if defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard is right, they’re going to get that out of him.
Hutchinson was on a crash course with the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2024 before his season-ending broken tibia and fibula. He had 7.5 sacks in five contests and looked unstoppable before his injury.
Now, Hutchinson is looking to build on that in 2025 as he also seeks a lucrative, long-term extension with the team, something that is in the works, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Sheppard met with the media on Thursday and made it quite clear he believes Hutchinson is going to take another step forward in his third season.
“I see a better player than we had last year,” Sheppard proclaimed, per Nolan Bianchi of The Detroit News. “You might be like, ‘Woah.’ That’s the same thing I said when I saw him out there, ‘Woah.’ The way he works, the way he attacked his rehab… it’s no surprise.”
This is one of the reasons why the Lions need to lock Hutchinson up sooner rather than later. If he has a monster season in 2025, Hutchinson’s price will go up.
Along with that, edge rusher extensions around the league between now and when the Michigan product gets his deal could also drive the price up.
Just look at Myles Garrett, whose $40 million-per-year extension from the Cleveland Browns reset the market by over $4 million at the time.
Barring him taking a team-friendly deal, the Lions will likely have to pay Hutchinson a deal north of $41 million per year, which is the high-water mark following T.J. Watt’s extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
There is a lesson to be learned from that contract extension, also. Had Pittsburgh taken care of Watt’s deal in 2024, it probably would’ve fallen somewhere around $35 million per, saving the Steelers a handful of millions annually.
On the flip side, it’s possible the Lions would prefer to wait things out to make sure that Hutchinson returns all the way from his injury. However, it doesn’t seem they are concerned he won’t, at least based on Sheppard’s comments.
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