The Detroit Lions have been operating without their best pass rusher for the better part of the 2024 season.

Aidan Hutchinson has been working behind the scenes to rehab a broken tibia and fibula suffered in Week 6. While he has been training at the facility, Hutchinson has been quiet over the last several weeks as he works toward a goal he set of returning for the Super Bowl.

On Wednesday, Hutchinson was the latest guest on ‘The Squeeze,’ hosted by Detroit Lions fan and Grand Rapids native Taylor Lautner and his wife, Taylor.

The reports circulating surrounding Hutchinson indicate that he hopes to return and play in the Super Bowl if the Lions make it that far this year. He reaffirmed that that was his goal on Wednesday, and gave a recovery update.

He said he has moved from walking with two crutches to one, and is firmly on the path to recovering, fueled by a desire to play in the Super Bowl. Hutchinson also noted that a documentary is being filmed about his recovery.

“I’m on track for my goal of returning for the Super Bowl,” Hutchinson said. “So I keep telling all the boys when I see them in the facility, ‘You guys just gotta get there, and I promise you I’m gonna be back.’ I tell people that, and my mom was like, we were talking yesterday, ‘But Aidan, what if you don’t get back? What if you can’t?’ I was like, ‘There’s no other way.’”

The third-year defender was having a career year through the first five games of the season. After a very strong offseason in which Hutchinson would manifest his success, as well of the work he put in to train his body to be in peak shape, suffering the injury was crushing to his mental perspective.

As he works to recover in time for the Super Bowl, Hutchinson has been clinging to that goal to motivate him as he works through the pain that he deals with in rehab on a daily basis.

“I think I take it one day at a time. But clinging onto that, even if we make it or not with the Lions, that is something that I cling on to every day to push me through rehab and push me to make me stronger and faster and get this leg back as fast as possible,” Hutchinson said. “That’s the goal, and I know I’m gonna be back. How I see it, there is no other option because I already know when I’m back in that Super Bowl, the amount of people that I’ll inspire is gonna just outweigh anything. And so, to me, there is no other way. That’s how it’s gotta be.”

Hutchinson also detailed the battle he faced from a mental perspective. As one of the league’s best defenders early in the year, he was the Defensive Player of the Year in September and was on a record pace for sacks.

“I was having this career year, it was like everything was going right. I was in this flow state the entire first part of the season. And then, it just got ripped away from me,” Hutchinson said. “I remember they put the air cast on my leg to put me on the stretcher to put me on the cart and go. All I remember thinking is just, one, ‘I’m not gonna be able to play in the Super Bowl,’ and two, the season that I was on this Defensive Player of the Year track got ripped away from me and that’s all gone.”

The Michigan product had the success he had manifested ripped away through a fluke injury. It was difficult for him to process at that point, but he has been able to utilize the desire to return as a motivating factor to push through pain.

However, through the support of his family and the pure motivation of wanting to be back on the field with his teammates, he is now battling back with the intentions of joining his teammates in the big game.