Two months before the Lions selected him second overall in the 2022 NFL Draft, Aidan Hutchinson ran a 4.74-second 40-yard dash. Tackle Justin Skule bore the brunt of that burst last week when Hutchinson piled up 4½ sacks in Tampa Bay’s 20-16 win.
The NFL’s leader with 5½ sacks entering Week 3, Detroit’s Pro Bowl edge rusher now needs to average just 1.13 sacks per game to match the single-season NFL record shared by Hall of Famer Michael Strahan (2001) and All-Pro T.J. Watt (2021). And don’t think Hutchinson doesn’t know it.
But he also knows a 17-game season is a marathon, not a 40-yard dash at the combine.
“It’s always been one of my goals since I got into the league was to break that record,” Hutchinson told Justin Rogers of the Detroit Football Network on Wednesday. “If I have the opportunity this year, great. …Honestly, I’ll always think it’s realistic. Even next year, if I don’t have as many sacks at this point, I’ll still think (that). My brain is wired that way.”
Detroit hopes his brain is wired the same way it was last week when the Lions (1-1) visit Arizona (1-1) on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, FOX). While the Cardinals gave up just one sack in last week’s 41-10 win over the Rams, Arizona allowed four sacks – three to Greg Rousseau – in a season-opening loss at Buffalo.
Over a longer stretch, Hutchinson has 10½ sacks over his last four regular-season games dating to Week 17 last year. If he can sack the elusive Kyler Murray twice on Sunday, the edge rusher would tie Strahan (12.5 sacks in 2001) for the most by a player in a five-game span since 1982, when the individual sack became an official statistic.
But regardless of where he finishes in the sacks column, head coach Dan Campbell and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn will deploy him to accomplish their ultimate goal at the end of that marathon.