How Detroit Lions' Aidan Hutchinson perfected his pass-rush move

It was a 10,000-piece puzzle, the Rubik’s cube of pass-rush moves that Aidan Hutchinson tried again and again but couldn’t solve.

Until one game, in Week 7 of his rookie season.

Hutchinson charged from the left end position as the Detroit Lions attempted to get off the field on a third-and-2 play midway through the third quarter of a close game against the Dallas Cowboys. He ducked low at the line of scrimmage, shot up the moment the ball was snapped and took four menacing steps toward the outside shoulder of right tackle Terence Steele.

Three years later, Hutchinson still can’t explain what happened next, how his huge 6-foot, 250-pound body spun like a ballerina so quickly that Steele didn’t know what was happening.

Desperate to stop Hutchinson from pulverizing his quarterback, Steele extended his left leg to trip the Lions’ pass rusher. Hutchinson caught the toes of the Dallas right tackle but kept his balance and raced toward Dak Prescott’s chest as the Cowboys quarterback stumbled backwards, causing a 7-yard loss.

Bag. Celebration dance. And suddenly Hutchinson had a new favorite move.

“I think the first spin move I really ran as a primary move in the game was Dallas my rookie year when I got a sack,” Hutchinson said in a recent interview with the Free Press. “I didn’t even do it in practice. I couldn’t figure it out and then in the game I was like, “Fuck it, let’s try it.” And then I did it and my rookie year I got the sack. And since the game against Dallas, it’s been a constant for me.”

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Hutchinson leads the NFL with 6½ sacks in the Lions’ Monday night game against the Seattle Seahawks – 1½ more than any other player in the first three weeks of the season.

He has recorded sacks in five consecutive regular-season games since last December – and in seven of eight games if you include the playoffs – and is on pace to challenge the single-season record of 22½ sacks held by TJ Watt and Michael Strahan split. And he did it with the greatest number of rush moves not seen in the NFL.

Hutchinson ran with chip help and dove under Rams right tackle Warren McClendon’s block for his first sack of the season. In a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2, he recorded 4½ sacks, came home with chops and dips and bull rushes, as well as an end tackle stunt with Alim McNeill.

And last week against the Arizona Cardinals, Hutchinson pulled off another spin move, racing up toward the outside shoulder of left tackle Paris Johnson and chopping Johnson’s left arm to throw him off balance as he turned inward and Kyler Murray choked, giving him a 7-yard loss.

“Spin is kind of a timing thing, and I could never figure out when the timing was in college or in the NFL, and then it must have been during practice week, that week it finally clicked, and then I went to the first time in the game,” said Hutchinson. “A lot of guys turn way too early, but you can’t just turn – and they don’t shoot with their hands, they just wait for you and pick you up.

“So I try to do it at the last possible second, after they’ve already invested in what they think I’m going to do, and then, right at the last second, I’m shooting. I mean, sometimes it seems so late, but in the end it works and then it’s good.”

As a pass rusher, Hutchinson has an extensive toolbox.

He is big and relentless. He plays with a motor that, according to Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield, has “no off switch.” He is dangerous from both end positions and on the rare occasions he lines up inside the Lions’ defensive line. And he has excellent body control, which makes his spin movement so effective and which he attributes, at least in part, to another sport.

“I feel like whenever I played lacrosse as a kid, I was constantly spinning and it was always a natural thing for me to just spin out of things,” Hutchinson said. “Once I figured it out, I knew it would be a good movement for me, simply because for some reason my body naturally moves very well with this movement.”

Every Lions pass rusher has a go-to move that fits their body type, position and skill set.

Marcus Davenport is tall and long and loves power. Levi Onwuzurike shines as a tackler with the inside cut. Kyle Peko made a living bull-and-pull.

Hutchinson’s dedication to spin came after many attempts and with the help of some of his NFL position coaches. Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said Hutchinson used to favor outside spin but has now perfected inside spin. Both the sack Hutchinson had as a rookie against Dallas and the one he had against the Cardinals last week came on spin moves.

Sometimes Hutchinson spices up his spin with a jab or a jab.

“You have to be careful not to give a guy so many plays that he doesn’t do one or two plays perfectly,” Glenn said. “And we try to do it with all of our players, and you try it with the defensive backs too, like, ‘What’s your baby?’ If it’s two minutes and they know where you stand, I know where I stand, what’s your move at the line of scrimmage? What do you do as a pass rusher? And they know you’ll make it, I know I’ll make it, who’s going to win? And we’re trying to make sure we don’t take that away from the guy, if that makes sense.”

Hutchinson is rare in that his baby is more like identical triplets and no longer wears a diaper.

He likes the spin, but opposing offensive linemen have come to “kind of expecting the spin, and then that opens up the edge move, which opens up different things for me to kind of exploit.”

“I think the greatest thing about him is that everything comes from the same tunnel,” Lions offensive tackle Dan Skipper said. “So (I have a) baseball background, so all pitchers talk about it all coming from the same tunnel. Hutch has gotten better and better over the last few years, and this year everything is the same. It all looks the same until it hits, so you can throw a rip or a spin or a bull or jump around in it and it all comes out the same. That’s what’s impressive.”

Now that he’s a master of disguise, a rusher who’s learned to make his spin move look like his Speedbull and his dip-and-rip like his spin, Hutchinson is working on expanding his arsenal even further as he chasing more and more sacks.

He said he spent the offseason working on a new play he tried once in the Lions’ Week 1 win over the Rams. It’s nothing revolutionary, nor is it something he wants his opponents to see, but it could help improve his game even further, which seems absurd considering how successful he is.

“It’s funny, I talk to the guys after we play and some of them you think they have it all figured out but they really don’t and they’re still experimenting,” Hutchinson said. “Guys who have been in this league for 10 years are still experimenting with this and that. And that’s what I respect these guys that are constantly trying to improve and develop their game, because some guys are just like, “Hey, I’m making this one move and you have to stop it,” you know what I mean? And I will continue to do it, but some people try to grow and evolve over time and I definitely respect that.”

Dave Birkett is the author of the new book “Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline.” Pre-order it now from Reedy Press.

Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

How Detroit Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson perfected his pass-rush move

ByJasper

By Jasper

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