Allen Park — It’s early, months before he’ll play his first game as a member of the Detroit Lions, but rookie defensive end Aidan Hutchinson is universally being described as advertised by the teammates and the coaching staff.
“Here’s my initial read, everything that we thought we were getting shows up, not just in practice but in the meeting room also,” defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said ahead of Thursday’s OTA practice. “What else shows up is just those little things where you’re like, ‘Can he do this? I wonder if he can do it.’ And then you see it in practice that it shows up. He has this quickness that’s just unbelievable. He has this ability to bend and turn and continue to work his hands that is outstanding.
“Those are some of the things I talked about in practice yesterday with our D-line coach (Todd Wash) like, ‘Just watch him. He’s always working. He’s always working,” Glenn continued. “That’s that relentless attitude that you guys could see when he was at Michigan that made him so successful. It’s natural for him. There’s no doubt in my mind that this player is going to be a really, really good player for us. I’m excited to see him once we get into training camp and he gets into games for us.”
About an hour after Glenn’s comments, Hutchinson put on a show with the media in attendance for the day’s practice. During a two-minute-drive drill, he burst through the offensive line on three consecutive plays, recording what would have been a sack on each had he been permitted to actually hit the quarterback.
And likely to the delight of Glenn, who has noted multiple times a desire to utilize Hutchinson from interior alignments, the final two would-be sacks came when the rookie defender rushed from the inside.
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Of course, it’s important to note that success came working against second-string offensive linemen, specifically two fellow rookies. But as these offseason practices continue into training camp, he’ll eventually get opportunities to face Detroit’s starting offensive line, led by talented tackle tandem Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell. That should be highly beneficial for Hutchinson, providing him with a better feel for the adjustments he’ll have to make to port his college success to the professional level.
“It’s adapting to the speed of the game, these types of tackles,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “I’ve said this before, this is where I think Hutch will have a big advantage, is the fact that he’s going to have to go against Sewell and Decker every day. I think that’s huge. I think that will play more into his development than a lot of other things.”
So far, Decker and Sewell have admired what the rookie has been bringing to the table from afar. Decker, who was sidelined Thursday by a foot injury lingering since last season, noted Hutchinson looks bigger than he anticipated. Sewell, meanwhile, sees the skill set that led to the Lions taking Hutchinson No. 2 overall in last April’s draft.
“He looks good out there, moving good, flexible, athletic,” Sewell said. “We’ll just see him grow as time goes on and looking forward to the battles.”
Sewell didn’t even mention Hutchinson’s strength, which earned him a legendary reputation in Michigan’s weight room. But Campbell was quick to note there’s still room for improvement in that area.
“His strength is good enough to go out there and compete, no problems there, but yet, man, there’s still a ton of meat on the bone with him, which is pretty exciting,” Campbell said. “Look, you can never tell for sure, but I would say this, it’s one of the reasons why we wanted to pick this guy. His DNA says that he’s going to do everything that he can to be successful, and he’s got enough ability and enough strength, he certainly does, to go out there and help us and help us win some games.
“…Like the rest of those (rookies), they’re swimming a little bit, but yet his approach is everything we thought it would be,” Campbell said. “He’s in the meeting rooms, he’s attentive, he’s wanting to learn, he’s taking it all in, he’s doing what’s asked of him and then it’s trial by fire. Like the rest of them, they’ve got to learn from my mistakes. He’s been all business.”
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers