Detroit Lions superfan turns front lawn into Ford Field replica
Brad Smith of Woodhaven, Michigan, is a huge Detroit Lions fan and turned his front lawn into a replica of Ford Field.
The money for premium pass rushers keeps going up, and Aidan Hutchinson is the latest to cash in.
Hutchinson agreed to a four-year contract extension with the Detroit Lions on Wednesday, Oct. 29, his agent announced. Hutchinson’s deal is worth $180 million with $141 million guaranteed.
Hutchinson, who has six sacks and four forced fumbles through seven games this season, is the latest defensive end to get a new contract in a burgeoning market.
Fellow edge rushers Micah Parsons ($47 million), T.J. Watt ($41 million), Myles Garrett ($40 million), Danielle Hunter ($35.6 million) and Maxx Crosby ($35.5 million) have signed new deals this year, and Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who led the NFL with 17½ sacks last season, agreed to a restructured contract that will pay him at least $30 million in the final year of his deal in 2025.
Since spring 2024, the Lions have focused on retaining much of the homegrown talent that has taken them to the brink of the Super Bowl.
In the past 18 months, the Lions have committed $968.5 million to sign nine cornerstone players to contract extensions: Hutchinson, Jared Goff, Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Kerby Joseph, Alim McNeill, Taylor Decker, David Montgomery and Jameson Williams.
Hutchinson, Williams and Joseph were each picked in the 2022 NFL draft.
The No. 2 overall pick out of Michigan in the 2022 draft, Hutchinson led the Lions with 7½ sacks last season despite missing 12 games after breaking the tibia and fibula in his left leg.
Hutchinson was a full participant in training camp this summer and showed little residual from last year’s injury. He said Aug. 21 he was “hands-off” in contract negotiations, preferring to leave talks to his agent.
The Lions struggled to generate consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks in Hutchinson’s absence last year and lost their divisional playoff game to the Washington Commanders after going 15-2 and tying for the best record in the NFL in the regular season. With Hutchinson back in the lineup this fall, they currently rank sixth in the NFL in sack rate and are second in the NFC North with a 5-2 record.
“That guy was having a phenomenal year (last year),” defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said this offseason. “That guy’s willing to drop into coverage if it deems they’re turning three people in protection to him. He’ll drop out without hesitation and understand the coverage aspect of it, want to pour into that. So I have full faith in Hutch.”
One of the worst teams in the NFL when they drafted Hutchinson, the Lions have gone 41-17, including a 5-2 start in 2025, and won two NFC North championships during Hutchinson’s first three seasons in Detroit.
Hutchinson led the Lions with 9½ sacks and had three interceptions in 2022, when he finished second to New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting, and he followed that up with 11.5 sacks and three forced fumbles while leading the Lions to the NFC championship game in 2023.
Last year, Hutchinson was in the midst of his best season and was a frontrunner for NFL Defensive Player of the Year at the time of his injury.
“Onward,” Hutchinson told the Free Press in February. “That’s the message. That’s all we can do. (We had) a great regular season, not-so-great postseason so we’re going to bounce back and get healthy, most importantly, cause with the talent we’re going to be good.”
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Hutchinson is the eighth member of the Lions’ core to sign an extension since the end of the 2023 season, which ended in an NFC championship game loss to San Francisco.
Goff was acquired in a trade in January 2021, Sewell, St. Brown and McNeill were members of the Lions’ 2021 draft class, Joseph and Williams were classmates of Hutchinson in the 2022 draft, Decker, a 2016 draft pick, was a holdover from the previous regime, and Montgomery originally signed as a free agent before the 2023 season.
Sewell and St. Brown signed contracts that made them the highest-paid tackle and receiver in the NFL at the time, Joseph signed a four-year, $86 million extension last spring to become the NFL’s highest-paid safety and Williams landed a three-year, $83 million extension before the start of the season.
Next year, 2023 draft picks Jahmyr Gibbs, Jack Campbell, Brian Branch and Sam LaPorta will be extension-eligible for the first time.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
