Detroit Lions edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson appears to be all the way back from his serious injury.
Hutchinson went down with a broken tibia and fibula in Week 6 last season, which was a crushing blow to Detroit’s defense. Now, his status is even more important, seeing as how the Lions are short along the edge after cutting Za’Darius Smith.
With a slew of players limited or not taking part in practice due to minor injuries, Hutchinson did take part, which is a great sign. And, by all accounts, the former No. 2 overall pick looked very good.
“Hutch looks, OTAs, looks good,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell stated, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “He’s moving well. You don’t see him favoring anything and he’s bending, he’s grabbing the grass, he looks confident.”
“(He looks) great to me,” cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. said. “I’m happy he’s back.”
Beat writers on the ground also praised Hutchinson.
“If Aidan Hutchinson was limited in this practice, it wasn’t by much. He got plenty of playing time, and, quite honestly, he looked just as explosive as ever,” Pride of Detroit’s Jeremy Reisman noted.
“On a day when no fewer than 19 players did not practice for a variety of mostly health-related reasons, Hutchinson was on the field and moving well in team and individual drills,” Birkett wrote. “During position drills, he dropped into coverage, chipped an assistant coach pretending to run a shallow crossing route, then turned to rush the passer on one play, then sunk his hips as he changed directions from dropping into coverage to rushing the passer on another.
“In team drills, he played both right and left defensive end and on one rush shoved All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell into the backfield.”
Birkett noted that Hutchinson still has some milestones to hit, including practicing in pads and taking cut blocks, but he added that Hutchinson “looks right about where he should” for this time of the year.
It’s fair to expect that Hutchinson may not be himself early on in his first season back from such a significant injury.
But, clearly there is hope he’ll be able to hit the ground running come Week 1.
