Notes: Videos of best moments, draft calls from Detroit’s 2024 draft

A collection of videos from the best NFL Draft calls, war room clips, and other moments from the Detroit Lions draft.

In my opinion, there is nothing better about the NFL Draft than watching the exact moment these prospects’ lives change forever. It’s rare in life that you get to capture the instant a dream is realized, much less on a humongous national stage. The phone call, the tears, the bear hugs with mom and dad—it’s enough to make even the c of hearts melt.

So for today’s notes, I gathered as many of these videos as I could possibly find for the Detroit Lions’ 2024 NFL Draft class. It’s not a comprehensive list of videos, and if you find any more, please share them in the comment section and I’ll add them.

But for now, here are the best moments caught on camera from the Detroit Lions’ 2024 NFL Draft.

Terrion Arnold:

No one in the draft had a more special moment than Terrion Arnold. One of just 13 prospects on site for Day 1, Arnold was the only one to hear his name called by the hometown Detroit Lions and got to feel that warm embrace of a record-smashing number of fans in attendance.

First, here’s the phone call:

ESPN docuseries “Hey Rookie” had a little more from the draft day call, which can be seen here:

The folks at NFL also set up this awesome moment: Arnold hearing an inspirational message from his dad.

Not a draft night video, but definitely worth your time. Terrion Arnold be a bad-ass kid:

Ennis Rakestraw Jr.

I haven’t seen any videos from Rakestraw’s point of view, but the Lions war room video reveals a pretty excited front office:

Giovanni Manu

More war room videos from Allen Park, with assistant general manager Ray Agnew looking particularly excited about this pick;

Perhaps my favorite moment of the weekend came from Manu’s side of the call. Particularly at the end, when he says with amazement, “They traded all the way up to get me in the fourth round!”

Sione Vaki

While we don’t see the exact moment Vaki gets the call from the Lions, we do see this emotional moment of the Lions fourth-round pick surrounded by his familiy and watching his name get called on the television broadcast.

(click the right arrow once to see the video)

I couldn’t find anything for the final two Lions picks, but, again, if you see anything, pass it along!

• Kerby Joseph was having a good ole time at the Tigers game on Tuesday night:

• Justin Rogers of the Detroit News has a nice eight-point opinion piece on the Lions’ draft haul (subscription required).

• While many analytical models had the Lions pulling in the most valuable draft class of 2024, this one—incorporating value of trades made and positional value—actually have Detroit as nearly the least valuable:

• The Lions have drafted a ton of players with Alabama ties over the past few years (Jameson Williams, Brian Branch, Jahmyr Gibbs, and now Arnold). ESPN’s Eric Woodyard got to the bottom of why the Lions are targeting Crimson Tide players.

• If you don’t want to read a ton of draft grades, but want to see the overall feeling of how national analysts feel about the Lions’ draft, this annual chart is always pretty interesting:

• One of my favorite reads every NFL Draft season: NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell breaks down the Lions’ 2024 draft class.

• Just some Jared Goff stats to remind you of his strong level of play over the last 2.5 years: