Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson Nominated For Pair of Awards

Aidan Hutchinson earns accolades for 2025 season.

Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson (97) celebrates a sack against Pittsburgh Steelers with Al-Quadin Muhammad (96) | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson is up for a pair of NFL awards.

The league and the Associated Press announced nominees for their accolades throughout the 2025 season.

On Thursday morning, it was announced the former No. 2 overall pick was nominated for Comeback Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

This season proved to be a year of redemption for the former Michigan Wolverines defender. Last year, his season was cut short after suffering a serious leg injury against the Dallas Cowboys.

Aidan Hutchinson started all 17 games in 2025 and recorded 1,005 snaps, 14.5 sacks, 54 tackles and 100 total pressures.

According to the team website, "Hutchinson was a stalwart along Detroit's defensive front this season playing 91 percent of the defensive snaps (1,005), a career high. He was named Second-Team All-Pro and earned his second Pro Bowl nod. He joined T.J. Watt as the only players in the NFL to ever accumulate at least 37.0 sacks and four interceptions through the first 50 games of a player's career. Since quarterback hits were first tracked in 2006, his 89 quarterback hits are the third-most any NFL player has logged through 50 games."

Detroit's defense did not have the strongest finish to the season, but Hutchinson proved to be worthy of the long-term contract extension he earned during the season.

He was clearly a reliable workhorse, playing nearly 90 percent of the defensive reps in Kelvin Sheppard's defense for 12 of the first 13 games.

Unfortunately, the team's rush defense did not remain steady, resulting in consecutive losses to the Steelers and Vikings, when the team needed victories to earn a spot in the postseason.

Hutchinson was a featured guest on ESPN during the playoffs and explained the team's struggles.

"As a player it really felt in those critical games, we were not playing complementary football in those moments. It's really on three phases," said Hutchinson. "It was sometimes offense, defense, special teams. It was a collective thing where little parts were letting us down. We ended up 9-8, but it wasn't enough to get us in. That was unfortunate, but we're all looking forward to next year."

Award winners will be announced at NFL Honors on Thursday, Feb. 5 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. NFL Honors, the league’s primetime awards special, will be televised at 9 p.m. ET on NBC and NFL Network.