After five games into his season, questions emerged about Aidan Hutchinson’s availability for Super Bowl 59.

Well, he’s available, but not in the fashion or form he and the Detroit Lions would have preferred.

The third-year defensive end made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, which is being hosted from New Orleans, the site of this season’s Super Bowl.

It’s one of the few public appearances Hutchinson has made since breaking his tibia and fibula during a Week 6 win against the Dallas Cowboys.

Hutchinson’s absence was sorely missed throughout the season, including the Lions’ divisional round loss to the Washington Commanders, where their defenders were unsuccessful in generating pressure and frustrating rookie phenom quarterback Jayden Daniels.

“Despite the pain, being ripped out of that season and knowing what I could have done and what could have been—that’s what I have the hardest time with,” Hutchinson said. “But then again, I’m going into Year Four next year, so I’m young, and I got a lot of good football left.”

Even with missing the final 12 games of the regular season, Hutchinson — who was on an arc to win Defensive Player of the Year at the time of his injury — still led the Lions in sacks with 7.5.

A big reason for Hutchinson’s success up to that point can be attributed to his own skill and the coaching of his former defensive coordinator, Aaron Glenn.

Glenn has since left Detroit to become the New York Jets’ new head coach. When asked about what type of coach the Jets are getting, Hutchinson peeled back some layers on their connection while addressing the question.

“He’s so great. I mean, me and AG — our relationship has developed so much over the three years that I was with him, and I feel like with AG, he knew what to say at the right time,” Hutchinson shared. “Every time, every message — whether it was a win or a loss — he was on point. I feel like there was never anything he said where I thought, ‘Oh, maybe you shouldn’t have said that.’

“Sometimes coaches say things, and you’re like, ‘Eh, I don’t know if that was the message.’ But I feel like every time he said something, it was right. So, him being a head coach — I think he’s going to be a really good head coach.”

As Hutchinson gears up for his fourth season in Detroit, he shared that one of his focuses is to remain around the low 260-pound area while becoming stronger both physically and mentally.

“I just learned so much new stuff every year that it’s the mind that develops, and that’s what makes you the better player,” Hutchinson said.

When discussing his injury again, Hutchinson waffled a bit on whether he actually saw the video, at first stating it was a gruesome video he didn’t watch, then recalling that he did watch it — but it was tough to see his own body contort in such a way.

Above it all, he summed it up with one sentence that highlights the type of competitor he is and why he was trending toward playing in Super Bowl 59 if the Lions made it.

“I still got the sack,” Hutchinson quipped. “Hey, if that’s a way to go out, yeah, I’ll take it.”