Interesting story on Hutch and JJ Watt, with the new Lion’s director of player health making the connection for them(he came from the Cardinals where JJ finished his career).
Some snippets:
You know, a lot of guys reach out, a lot of guys want to ask questions,” said Watt, …Some are extremely interested, and you can tell they’re going to utilize the information. But with others, you can tell it’s kind of just a call to say they called.”
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The call he received from the Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson earlier this offseason wasn’t one of the latter, however. And the relationship that has grown since then —
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“The call came when I was driving in the car and I was like, ‘Oh, (expletive),’” Hutchinson recalled with a laugh. “So there I am, one knee on the wheel, writing stuff down.”
But Watt took note of that himself. Of how “engaged” Hutchinson was on the other end of the line, how much he “really wanted to learn,” and how soon after that the 23-year-old “kid” was bombarding him with video clips of the work he was doing in training camp.
“He asks me to look at it, analyze it and give him tips and things,” Watt said. “I’ve really enjoyed that.”
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“My goal was to pick his brain, and pick his brain is what I’ve done,” he said. “I was soaking that (expletive) up like a sponge.”
That’s something he learned to do as he became a legacy All-America at Michigan, breaking down game film weekly with his father, Chris, and filling notebooks with detailed scouting reports on opponents.
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As for how good he can be, time will tell. But know this: Hutchinson feels insanely good right now, thanks to an offseason transformation that saw him replace nearly 15 pounds of fat with muscle on what is now a more durable — though still extremely pliable — 6-foot-7, 269-pound frame.
“I lost so much strength over the course of last season, so my mentality was to come in and be a little bit more dense, and that’s what I did and I feel frickin’ great,” he said. “It’s been a game-changer already, but I think throughout the year, it’s gonna be huge.”
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Per the article it was Hutch who convinced the coaches to switch him to a 2pt stance — “We’ll call it the two-point stance era and on,” he jokes now — he was one of the highest-graded pass rushers in the league, per Pro Football Focus.
That was with facing double teams nearly 30% of his snaps most of any edge rusher per the article and ESPN
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As for Watt, who still could torment tackles and guards as an inside rusher at the end of his career, he sees plenty of room before Hutchinson reaches his potential.
“Some of the things that he does and the way he works on his craft, it’s really impressive,” Watt said. “I mean, he wants to talk about things like specific hand placement, little things that he can do to finish at the top of the rush. He wants to talk about how to set up his moves, and over the course of a game, ‘How can I set up offensive linemen for a specific move?’ He wants to know what moves are missing from his repertoire. All these things are the right types of questions for him to be asking. And I’ve really enjoyed those conversations.”
