Aidan Hutchinson - Player, lions Event: Training Camp | Date: 2026-08-07 | Full transcript (primary source).
Aidan Hutchinson, a defensive end for the Detroit Lions, spoke to reporters during the team's training camp on August 7, 2026. The press conference took place in a humid outdoor setting, where Hutchinson discussed his mindset and focus during the team's scrimmage days.
Transcript
Hutchinson: He's unbroken. He's Aiden Hutchinson, and he's joining us right now. He's shirtless. It's so humid out here.
Unknown: Say she's got a little fan. She's been keeping on herself all day. I saw you when we were warming up with that fan I go dang that looks nice if I could just be well I was just being a fan of you watching you warm up cuz even when you warm up It's so intense.
Reporter: Aiden, where is your mindset right now? I feel like you're gonna break through a wall.
Hutchinson: Yeah, but these days It's um these scrimmage days. We only have two maybe three of them in the entirety of campus. So it's like there's a big emphasis on these days. And so it's gotta get your mind right. It's one of those ones where you wake up in the morning and your piss is hot and you're just everything is just focused on violence and intention and every rep.
Unknown: Hutch, I'm watching you out there in the field and you're like literally like you when you dream at night Is it only about pass rush like I'm just watching on the field and every like you're in your own zone out there.
Hutchinson: He wants you to get out. That's for sure. He wants me. It's I would say it can be a blessing and a curse because it's.
Unknown: What's the curse?
Hutchinson: The curse is it's hard to shut it off at night. I know you know when I I'm always trying to evolve and innovate and I think pass rush is an ever-flowing thing, you know, and so every especially in camp when it's football football football, it's hard to turn your brain out. But I'm always thinking about man. How can I set this up better? How can I get in a better position here? Sometimes I can be too cerebral or so. I think I'm at my best when I just go.
Unknown: When you just come out like how quickly does that thing get chopped or right?
Hutchinson: Right? Yeah I mean, it's you can do it you chop it you fork it you you can you hit it for this so they can reset underneath you and then you work off that. So it's there's there's so many different ways and so many different angles you can attack.
Unknown: But nobody had more quarterback pressures than you in the NFL last season and everybody talks about how complete you are as a pass rusher. What are the boxes you have to check off the criteria to be that complete pass rusher?
Hutchinson: Yeah I mean it starts with being able to rush three ways, you know. It's being able to have an edge rush rush with power most importantly I'd say and be able to have a counter, you know, cuz a lot of the speed guys in the NFL did the big old line and they're sitting on that speed. They're getting back. They got a gotta be able to turn that into power and say I would say I'm like kind of a combo I can I kind of can fit in both categories, you know, which yeah, that's so I try to rush all three ways and attack the old line when all three ways. And I think that's what gives me a lot of success.
Unknown: Well, you got a win on your second and sometimes your third.
Hutchinson: That's right. Like I mean if they take that away, you're gonna be ants that guy number 58 for you.
Unknown: Oh yeah that you go up against family like, you know, you're not always gonna be able to run through for a kind of power.
Hutchinson: And I yeah, Penne I've had the privilege of going against him for the last four years and I think we've gotten each other so much better and it's fun to even look back at some of our old reps to see I was looking actually last night through my phone.
Unknown: I'll have I got some.
Hutchinson: There you go. That's why that's that's the curse. It's the curse. I was looking back. I like to see how my own past rushes evolved. And I'll watch us rush and like just the evolution of how we rush or how I rush and how he defends me. It's just like this constant iron sharpening iron. It's a blessing.
Unknown: I was just watching just in warm-ups and a whole thing, huh?
Hutchinson: It does start with your takeoff. Like for sure you've got to get that take and you've got to time that thing in his business right now.
Unknown: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's the start.
Hutchinson: I mean that that's the thing you can get as cerebral as you want about pass rush moves this and that. But at the end of the day if you're getting off the rock that it's gonna take care of most things. Yeah, so that's what to simplify it when I get on game day I let go of all the moves and I go man. Let's just get off the ball stay low and man, see how the cards fall.
Unknown: I'll never forget standing with you at the end of the Bears game at the end of the season last year, right?
Hutchinson: That's right. You were emotional.
Unknown: Yeah, it was quite a journey. How are you guys using last year to motivate you because it does feel like a whole different energy?
Hutchinson: Yeah, last year. It was that week 18 game. It was there was a lot of weird emotions going on just cuz I made it through. It's just when you when you get your season cut short like two years ago didn't when I can say man I played all 17 last year and like I was healthy. I didn't miss a rep like that to me I was pissed we missed the playoffs, but that to me now still with so much gratitude that I'm walking off of my own two feet so this year. It's like I'm not even that's so far gone from my mentality. It's all kind of I'm still great I'm still like gracious for being able to play the game, but it's it's I think that's it's kind of as you as time goes on, you know you move away from that and I'm kind of back to okay we're in the flow of regular football again not come back not injury come, but whatever it is. It's we're done with that.
Unknown: We like that. We're happy that we're done with that because there's so much in store.
Unknown: Y'all had a bunch of sacks what 49 last year as a group?
Hutchinson: Yeah, yeah, that's right as a group.
Unknown: That was some of those sacks you had we gotta wrap up, but you had 14 and a half. Yeah. What's the number this year? You don't want to put it out.
Hutchinson: I I wouldn't want to put a limit on it. Okay, that's how I I think if you say a number, it's just you putting a cap on yourself. I'm yeah every game I'm just gonna rush like I'm trying to get it every time.
Unknown: Can't wait to see it you get it done Aidan Hutchinson. Thanks so much.
Hutchinson: Thanks.