The Chicago Bears are staring down the toughest division, maybe in NFL history. Every single team has 6 wins at the halfway point of the season. It feels like a miracle that the Bears are 7-2 and leading the way. While the Minnesota Vikings have the best defense in the league and just traded for Kirk Cousins, and the Green Bay Packers have the hottest passing attack, it feels like the Detroit Lions are the team to watch. They’ve won four in a row, with their defense finally playing a lot better after a miserable start to the season. Unfortunately, Aidan Hutchinson may have killed all of their hopes.
That may sound odd with Detroit likely on their way to a fifth-straight win in London over a reeling New England Patriots team, but an incident early in the game added a bitter aftertaste to the beatdown. Hutchinson delivered a big sack on Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, causing an ankle injury. The defensive end didn’t know this, as he was too busy celebrating. This led to a disastrous sequence in which Hutchinson hit the turf after landing from a big jump, immediately grasping his knee.
Bears fans will recognize it right away as the same type of incident Lamarr Houston suffered in 2014. He tore his ACL from that. Both happened against the Patriots.
Losing Aidan Hutchinson is a death blow for Detroit.
While details of the injury have yet to emerge, the Lions are sunk if it’s season-ending, as experts initially feared. How vital is he to the team? He has 6 sacks and 18 quarterback hits in nine games. His presence has helped defensive tackle Alim McNeil and journeyman defensive end D.J. Wonnum have big seasons so far, with 5 sacks each. With Hutchinson out of the picture, those two won’t be seeing nearly the number of single blocks they’ve enjoyed. His ability to draw double teams was vital.
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If that weren’t bad enough, he was also one of their best run defenders with 7 stops for no gain or a loss. Remember, Detroit already lost linebacker Jack Campbell for the season to a neck injury. Aidan Hutchinson going down makes a bad situation 10x worse. One could argue their defensive resurgence has been a mirage. They played the hapless Vikings offense two weeks ago and then a bad Miami Dolphins team last week. That run of good luck ends in two weeks when the Bears come to Ford Field on Thanksgiving.
Can the offense carry them?
They will have no choice. Detroit is having another great year scoring points, driven by their talented core and the strong work by new coordinator Drew Petzing. That group may have to do it all themselves if Hutchinson is really done for the year. Don’t forget the Lions lost him for most of 2024 because he broke his leg. The team still went 15-2, thanks largely to the offense piling up points. Unfortunately, that bill came due in the playoffs as Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders diced up the Lions’ 30th-ranked pass defense.
The problem this time around is that the NFC North is even stronger than two years ago. Chicago wasn’t a very good team that season. That is not the case in 2026. If they can’t consistently get to Caleb Williams, which Hutchinson made possible in their sweep of the Bears last year, it’s going to be a long day two weeks from now. The only thing to do is pray the injury isn’t as bad as it looked.
