Aidan Hutchinson speaks at Detroit Lions minicamp: 'Feel inspired to get this team going again'
Everything after Aidan Hutchinson spent time with the Michigan football program was noise. No. 1 pick? Hometown kid staying home? There were plenty of NFL Draft storylines surrounding the former Wovlerine EDGE rusher.
The noise finally came to an end on April 28 when the Detroit Lions selected him with the No. 2 overall pick. Rookie camp kicked off in Allen Park this weekend and was met with relief from Hutchinson.
“It’s great. This is what I do,” he said. “At the end of the day, all that talk, I hate the talk. There’s been a lot of months of talking, lot of rah rah, but now we’re out here getting the work in, which is what I do.”
Hutchinson is set to be one of the building blocks on a young defense looking to come into its own in the Motor City. It carries a little more weight to the Plymouth native an former Michigan star to help get the Lions on track.
“I definitely feel inspired to get this team going again,” Hutchinson said. “But again, it’s not just me. It’s going to be a group effort. It’s going to take all the guys on this team to get this team back to winning. If I can be a piece of that, I’d love to.
“I think we definitely have the right people in place to start winning some ball games. It’s a great vibe here right now. I can’t wait until all the vets get here and we all start getting after it as a team.”
Aidan Hutchinson exactly what Dan Campbell is looking for
Lions head coach Dan Campbell is one of the more unique personalities in the sport, which is something Hutchinson has plenty of experience playing for. Michigan’s Jim Harbaigh fit that bill, too.
Campbell and Harbaugh are cut from the same cloth in admiring gritty players that go about their business. Campbell calls them “floaters.”
“Floaters are a guy who gets here and he’s just kind of, there he goes, he’s just in the open ocean,” Campbell said.
Hutchinson fit everything the Lions were looking for and famously drew the ire of the league for how quickly they turned the pick in. They are seeing that in the early stages of his Detroit career.
“As you guys all know, we couldn’t get the call in fast enough once we knew (Jacksonville) didn’t take Aidan Hutchinson,” Campbell said Saturday. “It worked out great; it was perfect. 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 the 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. When you’re going to pick guys they better fit everything that you’re about, and he does that.”
Hutchinson, who played in 43 career games at Michigan, was a Consensus All-American in 2021 and a two-time All-Big Ten honoree. Hutchinson, a two-time captain, is the program record-holder for sacks in a single season, notching 14 for the Wolverines in 2021. He will wear No. 97 with the Lions.
