Exit interviews: After finding pass-rush production oppositive Hutchinson, Lions set to spin the wheel again this offseason
Wrapping up the Detroit Lions’ 2025 season, we’re doing our annual position-by-position evaluation of the roster. Today, we’ll focus on the play of the team’s edge defenders.
The straightforward stats
Aidan Hutchinson: 17 starts, 1,005 snaps, 54 tackles, 14.5 sacks, 100 pressures
Al-Quadin Muhammad: 17 games, 457 snaps, 25 tackles, 11.0 sacks, 53 pressures
Marcus Davenport: Eight games (seven starts), 281 snaps, 14 tackles, 1.0 sack, seven pressures
Tyler Lacy: 10 games (four starts), 21 tackles, 237 snaps, 1.0 sack, six pressures
Tyrus Wheat: 15 games, 15 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 66 snaps, three pressures
Advanced metrics
Hutchinson’s heavy usage continues to stick out. The 1,005 snaps were a career-high. Only one other defensive lineman, Las Vegas’ Maxx Crosby, logged more than 900 snaps in the regular season.
The Lions seemed to recognize the excessive workload late in the season. After Hutchinson played more than 90% of the team’s defensive reps in 12 of the first 13 games, only dialing it back in a blowout victory over Chicago in Week 2, he played fewer than 83% three of the final four weeks. It will be interesting to see if this approach sticks into next season.
With the extra playing time, Hutchinson managed to pace the NFL in pressures, while checking in eighth in Pro Football Focus’ pass-rush productivity metric, which weights sacks, hits and hurries against rush attempts.
Notably, Muhammad finished one spot ahead of his teammate in this efficiency measure.