While Derrick Moore appeared to have an opportunity to go home, instead, it turns out he’s staying home.
The Baltimore native appeared to be on his former defensive coordinator, Jesse Minter’s, radar, as the Ravens seemed poised to pick up the former Michigan football edge rusher. However, the local NFL team, the Detroit Lions, wasn’t about to let Moore out of the state; instead trading up to select Moore with the No. 44 overall pick.
Moore isn’t just sticking around in-state; he’s teaming up with one of the players he replaced on the defensive line. Having departed the Wolverines after the 2021 season, Aidan Hutchinson was already a hometown hero, and he became even more so after being the No. 2 overall pick in 2022. Moore ended up taking his role a few years later, getting the starting nod at end in 2024. Now, the Michigan duo will bookend the Lions’ defensive line.
“I’ll be honest with you, that was one right there that I — I’m definitely excited about to play with Hutch,” Moore said. “When Hutch was leaving out, you know, I watched Hutch my whole entire freshman year, even my sophomore year. Everything was pretty much dedicated to try to break his sack record, and I wasn’t able to do it, but I got close. But I’m definitely excited to be playing next to Hutch and hopefully that I can learn a lot from him and we can go and just cause a lot of havoc.”
Moore came close, as he said, with 10 sacks in 12 games last year, whereas Hutchinson had 14 in 14 games, reaching his father’s single-season sack record of 11 in the Ohio State game in 2021 before exceeding it.
Of course, Hutchinson himself is fired up about Moore joining the fray, having taken to X (formerly Twitter) to exclaim how excited he is to pair up with the fellow former Wolverine.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Why Derrick Moore, Aidan Hutchinson are excited to play together