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Lions Dan Campbell hasn’t closed door on Aidan Hutchinson return this season

Brad Holmes on lookout for trade but it’s not a certainty

ALLEN PARK — While Aidan Hutchinson faces significant recovery time from his broken left leg, Lions coach Dan Campbell will not count him out for the season.

“Let me say this, it’s 4-6 months. I would never count Hutch out. Ever. So long road, but I would never count him out, I would say if anybody can make it back it would be him,’’ Campbell said on Monday.

Hutchinson underwent successful surgery to repair a fractured tibia and fractured fibula at Baylor White Medical Center in Texas on Sunday night. He will return to Detroit this week and is expected to make a full recovery. Officially there is no timeline for his return to play at this time.

Still, returning this season — maybe in the playoffs — remains a possibility and Campbell thinks it is huge for Hutchinson just to know that is out there.

“Just knowing Hutch, he’s got one of those rare, if he believes in it, he can will himself to find a way to get it back,’’ Campbell said. “One of those guys, the mind can heal the body, he’ll find the next best thing and do whatever it takes to get back.

“So who knows? But yeah, I think it’s huge, you know it’s sitting right out there. ‘I can do this, I can get back. We’ll be in a position where I’ll be able to come back to help.’ I think it’s huge,’’ the coach added.

On Sunday, Hutchinson played 32 snaps against the Cowboys before he broke his leg early in the third quarter. The Lions were up 34-6 when he was carted off the field. He had notched one sack, three quarterback hits, and three tackles in the game which the Lions won 47-9.

Campbell remains confident in his team and certainly is not giving up on the Super Bowl goal. He’s not closing the door on a possible trade either. The NFL trade deadline is Nov. 5.

“Everything’s on the table but Brad (Holmes) and I are not panicked. This team is not panicked,’’ Campbell said. “It’s next man up and if we have an area where we need some help, we have to help each other out and we may have to play a little different and that’s OK. ‘’

Holmes will not jump on a trade unless it’s a perfect match for the team.

“This comes up every year and it’s not like he doesn’t look. He’s doing what he’s been doing – he’s looking. Is there somebody out there who could potentially help us? What is it going to cost? Just because it’s there doesn’t mean we’re going to do it. It’s got to be right if it is,’’ Campbell said.

“We’re not in a hurry, I believe in the guys who are here, I believe in the D-line. It doesn’t mean we’re not looking, we’re not evaluating. Brad is, that’s his job and he’s good at it. We’ll take it as it comes. Our eyes are open and we’ll make sure we have what we need here,’’ Campbell added.

Hutchinson’s injury is the second big hit for the defensive line that lost Marcus Davenport due to a season-ending injury three weeks ago.

Undrafted rookie Isaac Ukwu stepped in on Sunday to fill in for Hutchinson. It was his first NFL game action and while Campbell said it did appear that way, he’s seen Ukwu in practice and has faith he can improve.

Levi Onwuzurike, Josh Paschal and James Houston will be leaned on.

While Alim McNeill is an inside D-lineman, he can take some of the pressure off the ends. He had two sacks and seven pressures on Sunday.

“He’s one of those guys we’re going to lean on, he doesn’t have to be Superman but we’ve got to get that out of him every week and he’s got that ability,’’ Campbell said.

Hutchinson’s injury is a blow to the Lions, but doesn’t appear to be a death blow.

Overall in the first five games this season — Hutchinson’s third NFL season — he had been on fire with 7.5 sacks (he had 11.5 all of last year), 17 quarterback hits, 19 tackles, and one forced fumble.

He was a heavy favorite with 5/2 odds of winning the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year, per BetOnline.ag. Now he’s off the board and Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt has moved from 3/1 to the favorite at 3/2.

“Everybody feels for Hutch .. because they can put themselves in his shoes, it brings it back to reality. It’s part of this game and it’s hard,’’ Campbell said. “I think they also understand that man, we are a team and everybody is here for a reason and it takes every one of us.’’

NOTES:

— QB Jared Goff turned 30 on Monday. Among all quarterbacks in NFL history before turning 30 he ranked third in completions (2,763); tied for third in 300-yard games (38); fourth in yards (31,759); fourth in attempts (4,256); tied for fourth in starts (122); and sixth in passing TDs (193).

— The Lions have produced at least three passing TDs and two rushing TDs in back-to-back games. The only other times they’ve done so were in 1962 and 1950.

— RB David Montgomery is the 10th player in NFL history to produce at least 70 scrimmage yards and a rushing TD in each of the first five games of a season.

UP NEXT: Lions (4-1) at Vikings (5-0), 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Five reasons the Lions romped over the Cowboys, 47-9; Aidan Hutchinson update

When does a dominating win by the Detroit Lions feel a little like a loss? When Aidan Hutchinson, the heart of the defense, goes down in the third quarter with a broken tibia.

Still the Lions kept punishing the Cowboys and high-tailed it out of Dallas with a 47-9 win on Sunday.

“I thought we played the most complete game we’ve played here in a long time, if not the most since we’ve been here,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “I thought all phases stepped up particularly offensively and defensively, we applied pressure, we finally got a multiple take away game. They come in bunches.’’

Campbell said Hutchinson underwent immediate surgery and was staying in a Dallas hospital overnight. He said they’ll know more Monday, but obviously he’ll be down for a while.

“These are hard moments, that’s hard for everybody,’’ Campbell told reporters afterward. The team surrounded Hutchinson on the field after he went down before he was hauled away on a cart

Still the team stayed strong without Hutchinson.

The Lions are now 4-1 and face the division rival undefeated Vikings (5-0) next week at Minnesota. Detroit has now started at least 4-1 in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1970-71.

With a bye week coming up, the Cowboys (3-3), who were coming off two straight wins, will look to heal their wounds and regroup. They have lost all three home games so far this season.

It was total domination from the get-go for the Lions who were rested and ready after their bye week.

“I expected us to come in and play well. It’s the tightest I felt about our crew and we answered,’’ Campbell said.

Five of the main reasons the Lions won:

ONE: Quarterback Jared Goff was well Jared Goff, finding guys downfield for chunk plays – a 42-yard pass to Tim Patrick, a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jameson Williams, a 52-yard flea-flicker TD pass to Sam LaPorta and a 38-yard pass to Kalif Raymond. Goff completed 18 of 25 attempts for 315 yards and threw three touchdowns. He is one of only three QBs in Lions’ history who have thrown three 50-yard plus passes within the first five games of a season. He’s right there with Greg Landry and Earl Morral.

TWO: The Cowboys’ defense had no clue about how to stop the Lions on the ground. The Lions rushed for 184 yards. David Montgomery, who is like a freight train pushing down the field, finished with a pair of touchdowns and 80 rushing yards. Jahmyr Gibbs found success too with a dozen runs for 63 yards. The offensive line gave Goff plenty of time to throw and the running backs room to run.

THREE: The Cowboys could not get much going offensively thanks to Detroit’s stingy defense. Dak Prescott, the NFL’s highest paid player, just didn’t look like it. He completed 17 of 33 passes for 178 yards and threw two picks. The Cowboys had just 3 points on their first six possessions. They never scored a touchdown even with Hutchinson out of the game. It didn’t help that they turned the ball over five times – three interceptions (a late one by Cooper Rush) and two fumbles lost. Entering the game, the Cowboys owned the NFL’s second-best passing offense. That makes the Lions’ effort look even more amazing.

FOUR: Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson went deep into his playbook with a flea-flicker touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta, a pass to left tackle Taylor Decker in the end zone that wasn’t complete and a trick TD play to right tackle Penei Sewell that was negated by a penalty. He made offensive lineman Dan Skipper eligible on the first play, a nod to the whole mess at the end of the game last December which the Lions lost.

FIVE: Dan Campbell had his bunch ready to play. The game plan was solid. It looked like the best game for the offense and defense this season. A big nod also to defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn who is playing without a few key injured players. Campbell didn’t make much of it during the week to the media, but he grew up in Texas and played three seasons for the Cowboys. At practice Friday one of the tunes blaring from the speakers was from the Texan band, Whiskey Myers. It was called “Bury My Bones” and seemed to fit in with the theme of the week.

BONUS: Brian Branch came up with two interceptions of Prescott and was stopped just short of a touchdown on the return of the second one early in the fourth quarter. On the next play Goff found Amon-Ra St. Brown in the end zone for a score to give Detroit a 47-9 lead. Branch is the second player in franchise history to record two interceptions and a forced fumble in a single game, joining DB Drè Bly.

BONUS TOO: Kerby Joseph intercepted Cooper Rush, who was in for Prescott, in the end zone in the fourth quarter. It was Joseph’s fourth interception this year and all four have been in Detroit’s end zone. He is the Lions’ first safety to produce an INT in four of the team’s first five games since 1981.

The maturation of Lions WR Jameson Willliams

ALLEN PARK — Jameson Williams has matured before our eyes. The Detroit Lions wide receiver, who got off to a slow NFL start, collected his second game ball this season in the win over the Seahawks on Monday night.

It wasn’t just his two catches for 80 yards — one a 70-yard touchdown play – his blocking caught the eye of coach Dan Campbell.

Williams also earned a game ball in the opener, a win over the Rams, in which he had five catches for 121 yards and a touchdown. He carried that ball into the press room after the game, cradled in his arm and said it was his first game ball at any level. He didn’t want to let it go.

In the first four games he’s racked up 289 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns. He’s matched his touchdown total from last year when he had 354 receiving yards in a dozen games.

He’s a changed young man.

Campbell first gives credit to Jameson himself for his maturation, but points out that he had a lot of help along the way.

The coach didn’t mention it but the staff was also patient waiting for the 2022 first-round pick, to get his NFL legs under him. They never gave up. Campbell always would say he had seen improvement even when it might be tough to see to the naked eye by others.

“Everything starts with him. He’s done an outstanding job of rehabbing, getting over the injury, he had to deal with what came with the gambling, the time off (four-game NFL suspension), then he got hurt in camp before that happened,’’ Campbell said on Tuesday.

Williams didn’t play until Week 5 in 2023 and in that first game had two catches for 2 yards. He had missed much of training camp and all of the preseason games so it took a bit for him to get in gear.

“He’s been so raw to it, just learning and working his way through it, he’s just matured so much. He’s matured, he’s worked, he’s grinded, he wants the coaching, he wants to get better. That’s a credit to him that he’s open and he’s coachable,’’ the coach added.

It wasn’t just his teammates and the coaching staff, it was the team’s developmental staff that helped steer Williams in the right direction.

“We have so many resources here that help guys develop, not only certainly as players but as men and just trying to do things the right way, being a pro and everything that goes along with it,’’ Campbell said. “It’s been good to be able to do that and it doesn’t work that way everywhere, not every place is set up the way ours is set up.’’

It was the perfect landing spot for Williams.