Dan Campbell: 'I'm Ready to Unleash Hutch'

The Detroit Lions are ready to showcase their new young talent on the defensive side of the football.

If the Detroit Lions are going to be successful in 2022, the defensive side of the football must perform at a significantly better level than in 2021. 

Two new pieces of the defense, Aidan Hutchinson and Malcolm Rodriguez, have excited the fanbase, due to their potential to step in and play at a solid level their rookie season. 

“Oh, it’s awesome. On and off the field, he’s just a great teammate, great individual. Like I said, he’s not a rookie. He’s really not," Charles Harris said about Aidan Hutchinson. "You’d think he’d be in the league as long as me, in terms of his recovery, the way he carries himself on and off the field, how his attention to detail is. But, it’s very helpful, not just for myself, but for the team, for the d-line to have a guy like that within our arsenal.

“You’ve got to play all of us," Harris continued. "So, that’s the way it goes on gameday. So, we’re looking to wreak some havoc this year, for sure.”

Appearing on 97.1 The Ticket Tuesday morning, Lions head coach Dan Campbell expressed his desire to "unleash" Hutchinson in the regular season. 

"I love Rodrigo, and I like this kid," Campbell said. "He's exactly what we're all about. But, I'm ready to unleash Hutch."

Options to replace Halapoulivaati Vaitai

Unfortunately, for Detroit's offense, Halapoulivaati Vaitai will not be available for at least the first month of the season. 

Despite being disappointed, Campbell expressed the team will "overcome" one of its first obstacles faced this season. 

"This is nothing for us," said Campbell. "We'll overcome this. We'll be fine." 

There are young players the team could look to in order to fill the void, but Campbell also expressed the possibility of rotating players to play right guard. 

"We can kick (Penei) Sewell down to guard. We can bump (Matt) Nelson up. We can move Frank (Ragnow) over. We can put Jonah (Jackson) right, Logan (Stenberg) left. We can bring (Tommy) Kraemer back up to right guard," Campbell said. "We got options. We're going to make this work. It hurts to lose Big V. He was a big part of what we did. He was a great team guy, and will still be in the building. That's life in the NFL and we move on. But, we'll be okay."