Aidan Hutchinson Is Wrapping Up Rehab 'Pretty Soon'

Detroit Lions EDGE rusher Aidan Hutchinson is nearing the end of the rehabilitation process after suffering a broken tibia and fibula against the Dallas Cowboys.

“I feel good," Hutchinson told Pat McAfee on radio row Thursday afternoon. "I’ll be wrapping up rehab pretty soon, and then I’ll be moving on with my life.”

Despite the pain of having his third NFL season end prematurely, the former No. 2 overall pick is ready to resume his career in 2025.

Prior to his injury, Hutchinson was leading the NFL with 7.5 sacks, and was putting together an All-Pro, Defensive Player of the Year-caliber season.

“It hurt. Despite the pain, being ripped out of that season and knowing what I could’ve done and what could’ve been, that’s what I had the hardest time with," Hutchinson explained. "But then again, I’m going into year four next year, I’m young and I’ve got a lot of good football left.”

The former Michigan Wolverines defensive lineman expressed that his hot start in 2024 was due to the preparation he put in during the offseason and adopting a mentality of constantly learning about his position.

“I think it was just, every year you develop so much. Every game, I feel like I’m learning something new and I’m applying that to my game," Hutchinson said. "It’s just a culmination of doing that year after year, and I come out this year and everything just felt so right. I embrace the pressure more than I did. You come in as a first-rounder, I don’t really know what to expect. I get to my third year, and I’m like, ‘Third-and-10, game on the line, put me in position to get the 1-on-1 and I’m gonna win.’ That’s kind of the mentality that I did and it paid off.”

Dr. David Chao shared with the Detroit Free Press that he expects Hutchinson to be fully ready to play at the start of the 2025 season. Plus, Chao expressed Hutchinson will likely be at 100 percent.

“I’ll give you the good news, I haven’t examined Aidan Hutchinson. I didn’t do his surgeries, I didn’t see his X-rays, but I would not be worried much at all. I would expect a 100 percent recovery for him. Paul George, NBA player, Olympian, similar open fracture," Chao said. "There’s lots of other examples. I fully expect, this is not an Alex Smith issue from Washington. This is not an open-end fracture dislocation that gets infected. There’s no infection going on here. It’s a tibial shaft fracture, people do very well with rodding. This is not an Alex Smith situation, expect him back 100 percent. That is the good news of all of this."

More from Lions OnSI