Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson is WINNING all over the field: Film Breakdown
In this film breakdown, we take a look at Detroit Lions stud DE Aidan Hutchinson, the 2nd overall pick from the 2022 NFL Draft.
Aidan Hutchinson is having a breakout season in year 2, after a great rookie season. Currently, he leads the NFL with 35 pressures, and is top-10 in PFF defensive grade, PFF pass rush grade, and pass rush win rate. Further, he is top-15 in sacks and pressure rate, showing that he truly has taken a big step forward in the Lions defense.
He also has some random impact plays as well like 2 PBUs, a forced fumble, and an INT. Hutchinson is winning in all different ways as a pass rusher, and he is having the breakout year that we expected to see, with the Lions on a roll right now.
Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson Film Breakdown
Disclaimer: The following is a transcript of a YouTube video titled “Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson is WINNING All Over the Field: Film Breakdown” The content is for informational purposes only and was originally presented in video format.
Hutchinson is having a breakout season in year two. He leads NFL edge rushers with 35 total pressures through the first five weeks. He's PFF's fourth highest graded edge defender and he's in the top 10 to 15 in most of the efficiency metrics like pressure rate and pass rush win rate. He's also made a lot of miscellaneous impact plays, he's got two batted passes, a force fumble, and an interception.
So, I don't think anyone had doubts after his rookie year that he would be a good player. The question was if he could reach that top 10 level where he's basically unblockable, wrecking entire drives and entire games. And through the first five weeks, he's been one of the best defenders in the NFL. Dating back to his time at Michigan, he's always been a player that's used a wide range of pass rushing moves.
In college, he was able to win with pretty much everything he tried. But I always say it takes pass-rushers time to fully transition to NFL speed and strength. His rookie season, he still had a lot of ways to attack offensive tackles, whether it's a spin move or swipe, and he had 53 pressures and 11 sacks, so definitely a good first year.
But his power didn't really translate to the NFL at first, and he wasn't that efficient winning with his hands. All of that's expected for a rookie, but it hadn't helped for year two. This year he's just so much more efficient beating offensive tackles one on one at a really high rate, winning with power and speed. He looks a lot more explosive and his hand placement is a lot more precise.
This is probably my favorite play from his tape so far this year. He's lined up at three technique, outside shade of the guard. He's gonna flash this inside hand like he's doing a stab move right down the chest. That draws out the outside hand strike from Royce Newman, which he immediately swipes down and gets to the quarterback. This is the kind of precision and timing that he showed on his college tape against obviously much lower level of competition.
And then when he got to the NFL his first year, that didn't really carry over. Now he's just firing on all cylinders, masterfully setting up his moves. He's got so many different ways to win, and he can make everything look like something else, so blockers can't really get a read on what he's gonna do. Next play here against the Atlanta Falcons. He starts out like he's bull rushing down the middle, but the guard oversets. With a lot of pass rushing moves, it's hard to tell if that was planned pre-snap or if they're just reading and reacting to what the blocker does.
But once Matthew Bergeron widens out, he clubs that inside shoulder, powers through, and gets the sack on Desmond Ridder. Right here he's lined up on Trey Smith. You can see they got him lined up over the guard on a lot of pass rushing downs. Since he's not going to be like a James Houston level speed rusher that can just beat tackles to the corner consistently, that's a good way to take advantage of his quickness because he's going to have such a greater advantage lined up over a guard versus a tackle.
But he's using a double swipe right here. You can see as he's getting into this swipe move. The action of pulling his hands outside causes Trey Smith to miss with his outside hand strike. He doesn't actually cleanly swipe the outside hand. Trey Smith does a good job recovering. But when a blocker extends that outside arm, that always opens up space for the rip move. And Hutchinson does a great job transitioning to that; doesn't finish the sack, but he draws a holding penalty.
On this play, you can see before he gets into his move, the motion is actually very similar to the previous play; but this time Trey Smith takes a wider set which leaves an opening to the A gap so he club swims to the inside. Another move he uses pretty often is a speed chop, which is just a speed rush to the outside and you're chopping across your body to defeat the outside hand. You can see right here he's lined up on Taylor Moton, he's able to beat the outside hand, rip through, bend to the quarterback.
People act like Aidan Hutchinson isn't a good athlete. He set the combine record for three cone at his position. He's able to flatten his angle, beat the offensive tackle to the corner. He kind of gets tackled here, and Bryce Young is able to escape the pocket. I'm not usually one to complain about holding penalties, but I think this qualifies. And then he's able to use that speed chop to set up what's probably a top two or three spin move in the NFL.
Right here you can see he's aggressive working upfield, he's swinging his arms, he's making everything look like he's using that speed chop move that I just showed. And then, once he gets to the top of the rush, Taylor Moton leans in for his punch and then he's so fluid with that inside spin to get through the B gap. Once the tackle extends for his punch he hits him with the inside spin, gets a hit on the quarterback. This is a really nice throw under pressure from Bryce Young, by the way.
He gets a sack here against Atlanta. He's lined up on Jake Matthews, who's a really good left tackle. The way that he exaggerates swinging his arms, that's exactly what he does when he's using his normal speed chop. So that really sells that he's rushing to the outside. Causes the tackle to overextend, and then he can't recover when he spins inside. So, winning with finesse and winning with his hands, he was doing that in spurts last year, but it's just so much more consistent and reliable this season.
And the biggest improvement by far is how much more effective his power rush is. Pass rushing is all about creating as many threats for the blockers as possible. You want to create as many things that they have to worry about you doing. So if you can only win with speed they're just gonna over set and pretty much shut that down.be prepared to drop their anchor. But if you can win in a bunch of different ways, they aren't able to sell out to stop one thing.
Especially against a pass rusher like Aidan Hutchinson, who has that reaction time to make them pay when they overextend in one direction. Right here you can see he just launches Kaleb McGary into the pocket. He wasn't doing stuff like this last year, at least consistently. Even on plays where he doesn't get a dominant win or a sack, he's still pushing the pockets, speeding up the quarterback's internal clock.
On this play he's threatening the tackle like he's gonna swipe or club or do something with his hands, And then he's able to instantly accelerate into a power rush, He moves the tackle back into Bryce Young's lap and he has to throw off his back foot. And then right here, he's lined up on Matthew Bergeron, who does a good job anchoring against that initial bullrush. But once he feels his power start to die down and he can tell the guards kind of out of control; he transitions into a rip move, gets the sack, force fumble and his own recovery.
What I really like about Aidan Hutchinson is he's always going full speed. He's one of the most high effort players in the NFL but he's doing all of that under control. Right here, he's being blocked by a tight end. It would be easy for him once he turns the corner to just continue to get upfield and try to get a sack. But he reads the quarterback's eyes, he's able to feel out this screen developing behind him, and he slides in front of the passing window for an interception.
So Aidan Hutchinson has taken exactly the step you wanted to see from him year two. He's really developed into a dominant pass rusher that can win in so many different ways. And like I said, really the only athletic limitation with him is arm length. He isn't like a Haason Reddick level speed rusher or anything.
But he's got a leap bend, really good explosiveness, And he's just such a talented pass rusher with his hands. And that's what makes the Aiden Hutchinson and Trayvon Walker conversation so funny. Travon Walker is a better athlete, but it's not like they're taking Rudy second overall.
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