ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Three-point, two-point, red-point, blue-point — Detroit Lions defensive line coach Todd Wash doesn't care how many limbs Aidan Hutchinson puts on the ground to rush the passer, as long as he gets home.
"If they wanna come out of a two or a three, the bottom line is, get to the damn quarterback," Wash said earlier this week.
But as it so happens, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that the Lions putting the No. 2 overall pick in a three-point stance, as opposed to standing up, has limited his ceiling as a pass rusher in the early stages of his career.
The Lions remedied that a bit last week against the Cowboys by putting Hutchinson as a stand-up rusher on the edge more frequently. The results: Hutchinson had 1.5 sacks and three quarterback hits against Dallas. Both were his highest totals since Week 2 against the Commanders, when he had three sacks and six tackles, two for loss, against Carson Wentz and a tailspinning Washington offense.
"The one thing that it allows him to do is play with more vision," defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said of Hutchinson rushing from a stand-up position. "... (He's) able to see the quarterback, able to see certain run plays, and I will say this about this player: He's a very instinctive player, and listen, sometimes, guys just — they feel it. And when they feel it, man, go make a play. And that's who he is, and we give him that freedom to do that, and that showed up."
To be fair, one of those sacks on Sunday — the half-sack — came out of a three-point stance, but his solo sack and another quarterback hit came off a spin move out of the two-point stance, and the data supports Hutchinson's performance in a two-point going back to his college days.
Per Pro Football Focus' Mike Renner, Hutchinson has a pass-rush grade of 86.3 when coming out of the two-point stance (18 snaps) as a pro and 57.4 out of the three-point (177 snaps). At Michigan, it was more of the same: He had a 93.5 pass-rush grade out of the two-point stance (412 snaps) and a grade of 75.1 in the three-point stance (547 snaps).
"All the film you watch all week, you're staring at the wide view, but once you get on the field and your hand's in the dirt, you lose all that information you were kind of obtaining all week," Hutchinson said. "With me, I'm a very instinctual player and being able to use that gives me kind of another — it puts me on another level, I feel, just because I'm able to access one more thing in my tool box.
"You can see the cues, you can see the motions. I'm a big 'feel' player, so you can feel the play and feel kind of what's happening."
Hutchinson is changing with the Lions defense as a whole. Essentially, Detroit had been using him in a way that would aid its effort to tout a more attacking front. As it turned out, Detroit didn't have the horses to run that effectively. As the defense floundered, Glenn's scheme reverted to a play style more similar to last season's and Hutchinson started to be put in situations that better helped him succeed as an individual.
Part of that is a coincidental scheme-based thing, and part of it stemmed from Glenn calling Hutchinson during the bye week to gather his input.
"AG called me and he was asking me — kind of just talking to me about what I think and what I think is best for myself. We just had that conversation, and he's very flexible," Hutchinson said of Glenn. "Right when I kinda expressed how I felt about (rushing from a two-point stance), he was like, 'We can get that done.'"
As Hutchinson grows more comfortable playing the game, Wash said his next task is to come up with games like last Sunday's on a consistent basis.
"We were thinking more speed to power and condensed and then get to edges, and it worked out really well for him. He's got a lot of talent. There's gonna be ups and downs along with every rookie that's ever played this game," Wash said.
"He has the ability to impact the game down-in and down-out. You just gotta get more consistent, you know? I think he's missed three sacks where he's completely unblocked ... he could have eight by now."
