It has been two months since we have seen Lions star Aidan Hutchinson on the field, after he suffered both a broken tibia and fibula in a win over the Cowboys back in Week 5 of the NFL season.
Hutchinson's injury was a harbinger of bad things for the banged-up Lions, who had 13 players on the injured list in Sunday's loss to the Bills. They came out of the game with three more players--including star running back Davis Montgomery, who will be out for the year with a knee injury--hitting the ranks of the wounded.
At 12-2, though, the Lions are still in excellent shape for the postseason. And if they can grind their way through the playoffs as they've done despite their regular-season injuries, the Super Bowl goal remains in sight.
That's all Hutchinson is asking for. As he revealed this week, if the Lions can get to the championship game in February, he has promised his teammates he will be in uniform.
"I am on track for my goal of returning to the Super Bowl," Hutchinson said. "And so I keep telling all the boys when I see them in the facility, I am like, ‘You just gotta get there and I promise you, I am gonna be back, you know?’
"And I tell people that and—my mom was like, I remember, we were talking yesterday and my mom was like, ‘But Aidan, what if you don’t get back? What if you can’t?’ And I was like, ‘There’s no other way.’"
Lions star Aidan Hutchinson
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The Lions can control their own fate as far as the No. 1 seed in the NFC goes, with remaining games against the Bears, 49ers and Vikings.
Detroit has tiebreakers over Philadelphia and Minnesota, who are also 12-2, though the season finale against the Vikings might well determine whether the Lions keep that No. 1 spot.
