Michigan Wolverines football defensive end Aidan Hutchinson announced this offseason that he will be returning for his senior season in Ann Arbor. Hutchinson played in three games this season but suffered a leg injury in the third contest against Indiana that forced him to miss the rest of the shortened six-game campaign.

Bringing back Hutchinson and his 98 career tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in 29 games is a huge boost and good starting point for a Wolverines defense that struggled mightily in 2020.

Former Michigan defensive end Kwity Paye, who declared for the NFL Draft following his senior season this past fall, is excited about what Hutchinson can do in his final season in the winged helmet. Paye himself decided to return for his senior season following the 2019 campaign, forgoing the NFL Draft.

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"Freshman year when he came in, you can ask all the linemen on our team and they would say, 'Aidan Hutchinson is a dawg,'" Paye said while appearing on PFF's 2 For 1 Podcast. "… A very hard worker, dedicated to his craft, and it was unfortunate when he got injured, because this season was going to be crazy.

"He’s going to have another opportunity to go back, and I’m telling you right now, that’s a future All-American, automatically [in the] first round. That guy’s going to be a dawg next year. I’m excited to see what he does."

One of the things that makes Hutchinson such a special player, Paye explained, is his practice habits, taking every single rep and drill seriously.

"Aidan’s a real dawg, man. Like in practice, he would hate to lose any rep," Paye said. "And if he were to lose that rep, he’d watch the film and make sure he wouldn’t lose that rep again."

Paye is currently in Arizona preparing for the 2021 draft with EXOS Sports Performance. He decided to forgo his final year of eligibility, which was granted to every football player by the NCAA due to the uniqueness of the 2020 season caused by the pandemic. He said it was time for him to move on and chase his dreams.

"I just felt like I came to Michigan and I feel like I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, made sure I got my degree, made sure I put in my four years with my brothers.

"The NFL was always a dream that I had since I was a little kid coming from Rhode Island, especially. Most people don’t get this opportunity to go where I’m going, and throughout my whole life, I always had people saying, ‘Oh, that dream is unattainable, that dream is impossible,’ or they’d look down upon my dream because nobody has done it before, so that just made me want to go out there and achieve my dream to prove myself right and prove a lot of these people wrong.

"And [I want to] inspire the youth of Rhode Island as well, because you’re constantly hearing, ‘Oh, you can’t do this or do that.’ It diminishes their goals and their future, so I wanted to do this to inspire these kids to tell them, ‘Yeah, it’s possible. If you really want it, you can go and get it.'"

Paye dealt with an injury of his own this season and missed time because of it. He appeared in just four games, notching 16 tackles, with four for loss, and two sacks. During his career, he totaled 100 tackles, 23.5 stops for loss, 11.5 sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

A projected first-round pick in several mock drafts, Paye was listed at 272 pounds this past season, but he revealed that he's looking to trim down to closer to 260 pounds during the pre-draft workout process.

"For right now, I’m just trying to get my body the leanest it can be, trying to get into the best shape I can be, and we’re still working all the combine drills as if we’re going to have a combine," Paye explained. "I’m not sure if EXOS is holding their own combine or whatnot, but we’re just continuing to prepare. Regardless if there’s a combine or not, it’s still an opportunity to get our bodies right and improve."

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