{"id":700045,"date":"2026-01-23T23:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/700045\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T23:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:17:12","slug":"lions-aidan-hutchinson-named-nfl-defensive-player-of-the-year-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/700045\/","title":{"rendered":"Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson named NFL Defensive Player of the Year finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, the NFL announced finalists for its 2025 NFL Honors<\/a>, with Detroit Lions<\/a> defensive end Aidan Hutchinson named as a finalist for Comeback Player of the Year<\/a> and Defensive Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

Hutchinson enjoyed a sensational 2025 campaign in his return to play after suffering a gruesome season-ending leg injury in 2024. The 6-foot-7, 268-pound former Michigan Wolverines<\/a>‘ pass rusher registered 54 tackles (36 solo, 18 assisted), a career-high in sacks (14.5) and forced fumbles (4), and one interception while starting all 17 games.<\/p>\n

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Hutchinson led the NFL with 100 pressures<\/a> and made Pro Football Focus history, becoming the only player with multiple 100-plus pressure seasons since PFF began tracking player performances in 2006. Hutchinson also logged 1,005 defensive snaps, which set a new career-high and accounted for 91% of all Detroit defensive snaps.<\/p>\n

The four finalists joining Hutchinson for the Defensive Player of the Year award<\/a> include Houston Texans<\/a> defensive end Will Anderson Jr., Denver Broncos<\/a> linebacker Nik Bonitto, Cleveland Browns<\/a> defensive end Myles Garrett, and Green Bay Packers<\/a> defensive end Micah Parsons.<\/p>\n

New England Patriots<\/a> wide receiver Stefon Diggs, Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> quarterback Trevor Lawrence, Dallas Cowboys<\/a> quarterback Dak Prescott, and San Francisco 49ers<\/a> running back Christian McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

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The four finalists joining Hutchinson for the Comeback Player of the Year award<\/a> include New England Patriots<\/a> wide receiver Stefon Diggs, Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> quarterback Trevor Lawrence, Dallas Cowboys<\/a> quarterback Dak Prescott, and San Francisco 49ers<\/a> running back Christian McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

The winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award will be presented at NFL Honors on Thursday, Feb. 5 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco during Super Bowl week and will be aired at 9 p.m. ET on NBC and NFL Network with streaming available on Peacock and NFL Plus.<\/p>\n

For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Scout on X:\u00a0@SpringgateNews<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson named NFL Defensive Player of the Year finalist<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, the NFL announced finalists for its 2025 NFL Honors, with Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1817,4124,54,1370,257,35002,28885,258,113,7,345,253,125,491,71,1304,249,6,20674,1625,410,1161,252,531,314,6051],"class_list":{"0":"post-700045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-aidan-hutchinson","9":"tag-christian-mccaffrey","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-dak-prescott","12":"tag-dallas-cowboys","13":"tag-defensive-player-of-the-year","14":"tag-defensive-player-of-the-year-award","15":"tag-denver-broncos","16":"tag-detroit-lions","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-green-bay-packers","19":"tag-houston-texans","20":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","21":"tag-micah-parsons","22":"tag-michigan-wolverines","23":"tag-myles-garrett","24":"tag-new-england-patriots","25":"tag-nfl","26":"tag-nfl-honors","27":"tag-nik-bonitto","28":"tag-pro-football-focus","29":"tag-san-francisco","30":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","31":"tag-stefon-diggs","32":"tag-trevor-lawrence","33":"tag-will-anderson-jr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700045","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=700045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}