The Detroit Lions trounced the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, but their big win came while losing defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson for the rest of the season with a broken tibia. Hutchinson was a Pro Bowler last season and seemed destined to reach that stage again this year as he led the NFL with 7.5 sacks on the season before his injury.
While trade speculation starts around possible pass-rush replacements like Raiders star (and Michigan native) Maxx Crosby — who has said he’s not interested in a trade from Las Vegas — NFL on FOX analyst Greg Olsen believes Hutchinson is, as Beyoncé would put it, irreplaceable.
“There’s like a handful of guys throughout the league that you could say, okay, if we were able to somehow steal them away, plug them in for Hutchinson, we could just go one-for-one trade. Maybe there’s three, if that,” Olsen said on “The NFL on FOX Podcast.” “He’s just such a unique player. His production’s incredible. And, even on the plays that he doesn’t even end up in the stat sheet, he disrupts everything. His effort. His motor. I mean, you’re not replacing him.”
Lions head coach Dan Campbell said on Monday he does not expect general manager Brad Holmes to rush into anything when it comes to replacing Hutchinson, saying “We’re looking, and we’re evaluating.”
But Olsen questioned if anyone else on the Lions’ roster, even in tandem, could replicate Hutchinson’s effect on opposing offenses, such as that of the 5-0 Minnesota Vikings who the Lions face Sunday (1 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App).
“I’m not sure if they have a collection of guys that, even together, can replace him,” Olsen said. “It’s not even so much sacks, pressures — that is going to be very hard to duplicate — [It’s] the attention he gets. They don’t want to run away from him because he chases him down. They can’t run at him because he’s great at the point of attacks.
“All of a sudden you take him out … You’re going, okay, the guy we had to game plan around, he’s no longer on the field. It just changes everything.”
While Olsen is still rooting for what he calls “one of the best stories of the last three years in football” in the Detroit Lions, he is saddened by the loss of Hutchinson both on and off the field.
“People can say what they want,” Olsen claimed. “You just don’t replace All-Pro players. It’s heartbreaking. I hate it for him. I hate it for the Lions. They’re one of the best stories of the last three years in football. Dan Campbell is like the ultimate guy you want to cheer for. You can see why people have fallen in love with the Lions. Hutchinson, on and off the field, is a big reason for it.”
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