Even after the Lions’ bye, Aidan Hutchinson leads the NFL in sacks

Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson got off to such a hot start this season that he didn’t lose his league lead in sacks even after most of the league had an extra game to catch up to him.

Hutchinson has 6.5 sacks this season, and even after the Lions’ Week Five bye, that’s the most in the NFL. Every other player who has more than four sacks this season plays for a team that has played five games with 12 remaining, while Hutchinson and the Lions have played four games with 13 remaining.

As the second overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft, Hutchinson had 9.5 sacks as a rookie and then increased that to 11.5 sacks last year. This year he appears poised to create a new career high, and perhaps even threaten the NFL’s official sack record of of 22.5, shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt, or the unofficial record of 23, set by the Lions’ Al Baker in 1978, before the NFL recognized sacks as an official individual statistic for defensive players.

If Hutchinson keeps playing at his current level, he’ll also be a strong candidate to win the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award.