Aidan Hutchinson was relieved the Jaguars didn't draft him in 2022

Detroit Lions second-year pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson had an almost storybook first season in the NFL. The No. 2 overall pick was selected by his hometown team in the 2022 NFL Draft and starred down the stretch as a pass rusher, finishing with 9.5 sacks and three interceptions.

But it almost wasn’t that way. The Jacksonville Jaguars — which took Georgia’s Travon Walker with the No. 1 overall pick — strongly considered spending that pick on Hutchinson.

And while the Jaguars, like the Lions, are a burgeoning young team, Hutchinson is glad things worked out the way they did.

“I’m happy here. Very thankful, very thankful,” Hutchinson said on Wednesday, according to Sports Illustrated. “I mean, it all worked out. It was divine timing. The way things went was the way things were supposed to go.”

Hutchinson is a southeast Michigan lifer with his selection to the Lions. He grew up in the Detroit suburbs and attended Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Michigan. There, he became a four-star defensive end prospect, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, and committed to Michigan, where his dad, Chris Hutchinson, had set the single-season sack record.

After a senior season at Michigan where he recorded 13 sacks — beating his dad’s record — and was a Heisman finalist, Hutchinson was expected to be picked high in the 2022 NFL Draft. With the Lions picking at No. 2 overall, he knew there was a chance it could happen.

And clearly, more than a year later, the Michigan native is quite content to be repping his state and the Lions.

Hutchinson has apparently cranked up the intensity ahead of Year 2 in the league

After finishing second to Sauce Gardner for AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, Hutchinson is expected to make a leap in his second year for the Lions.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell provided some good news on that front as he said that is exactly what’s coming for last year’s No. 2 pick. In a press conference in early August, he explained how Hutchinson’s confidence has helped him add a ton to his game which, in his eyes, will help him take the next step in his second season.

“I feel like he’s got more in his toolbox. He was already a confident player but you can just see has a ton of confidence,” Campbell said. “You see these tools coming out that have elevated his game. So he’s got a counter move, he’s got a spin, he’s got a bull. He’s violent shedding the run game, he sets an edge. He’s a big man and he’s got a high motor.”

“(Hutchinson) has taken it up a notch. That’s what you want to see.”