Jan. 11, 2026, 5:15 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
Individually, Detroit<\/a> pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson enjoyed a career-best season. Hutchinson finished with a career-high 14.5 sacks and led the NFL with 100 pressures<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 6-foot-7, 268-pound defensive end’s 14.5 sacks tied Ezekiel Ansah (2015) for the second-most sacks by a Lions<\/a> player in a single season, trailing only Robert Porcher (15.0 in 1999).<\/p>\n Of course, the Lions’ season didn’t turn out the way Hutchinson or Detroit wanted it to. The Lions finished 9-8 and missed out on the playoffs for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Hutchinson was invited to join ESPN’s “Postseason NFL Countdown”<\/a> alongside host Mike Greenberg and analysts Tedy Bruschi, Randy Moss, Rex Ryan, Alex Smith and Adam Schefter.<\/p>\n Hutchinson was asked to reflect on the Lions’ 9-8 finish.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n “As a player, it really felt in those critical games, we were not playing complementary football in those moments, and that’s really on all three phases.<\/p>\n “It was sometimes offense, defense, special teams, it was a collective thing where little parts were letting us down and we were losing these close games. We ended up 9-8, but it just wasn’t enough to get us in. It was unfortunate, but we’re all looking forward to next year,” Hutchinson said.<\/p>\n Asked what needs to happen for the Lions to get where they want to be in 2026, Hutchinson pointed first to the health department.<\/p>\n “To me, defensively, I think it’s get healthy. It’s get our secondary healthy, get all those guys back and I really think we’re going to have a complete defense,” Hutchinson said.<\/p>\n Lions safety Kerby Joseph played in just six games in 2025 as he dealt with a cartilage issue in his left knee. Detroit later lost fellow starting safety Brian Branch to a season-ending torn Achilles<\/a>. Lions starting cornerback Terrion Arnold played in just eight games and started seven as he dealt with a shoulder injury that eventually landed him on season-ending injured reserve<\/a>.<\/p>\n While 2025 leaves a sour taste overall, Hutchinson was named a Pro Bowler<\/a> for the second time in his career and he was one of four Lions to garner All-Pro honors<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like. Follow Josh on X, @JoshOnLions<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 11, 2026, 5:15 p.m. ET Individually, Detroit pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson enjoyed a career-best season. Hutchinson finished…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[95878,146,113,2506,7,147,5264,6,52959,96502,97086,95882,96512,96242,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,97467,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-670053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-lions","11":"tag-detroitlions","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-mi","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sstssportsnfllions","17":"tag-sstsnlions","18":"tag-tagaidan-hutchinson","19":"tag-tagamerican-football","20":"tag-tagdetroit","21":"tag-tagdetroit-lions","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-tagterrion-arnold","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115879233735023589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}