The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1468055
The local kid is staying home. Former Michigan edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson, who was a driving force behind the football team's Big Ten championship and trip to the College Football Playoff last season, was selected No. 2 overall by the hometown Detroit Lions in the 2022 NFL Draft. When NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called his name from the stage in Las Vegas on April 28, Hutchin- son became the Wolverines' highest draft pick since Jake Long went first overall to Miami in 2008. Hutchinson, who set a single-season program record with 14 sacks in 2021, was a consensus All-American last season and a two-time All-Big Ten honoree. He also was a two-time team captain and has a laundry list of other awards he gathered, headlined by finishing as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy this past fall. " To the city, just know I'm gonna give it my all," Hutchinson said after the selection. "It was such an honor to be on that stage and be picked by the Lions. It was the Lions all the way. The whole draft process, I wanted them to pick me. And I'm so grateful that I went No. 2 to them." Hutchinson is a native of Plymouth, Mich., and he played his high school ball at Dearborn Divine Child, just 15 minutes down the road from the Lions' practice facility in Allen Park. His new professional team is based just 30 minutes down the road from Schembechler Hall in Ann Arbor. "He checks a lot of boxes that we look for," Lions gen- eral manager Brad Holmes said. "From an intangible standpoint, he plays with a high motor. He loves foot- ball, he's very passionate about the game. But the other thing that I think is lost with Aidan is — a lot of people when you're talking about pass rushers, you're talking about sacks. He had a lot of them, and he was very pro- ductive as a rusher last year. But I think what gets lost is how effective he is in the run game." PHOTO BY BEN LIEBENBERG/NFL THE BIG PICTURE AIDAN HUTCHINSON'S NFL DREAM MATERIALIZES INTO A HOMECOMING