While Detroit Lions fans were scratching their head when the team selected little-known safety Tracy Walker with their third-round pick, the team’s war room was doing figurative backflips for the selection.
Typically when a pick is made, we see video of coaches, general managers and personnel department executives share handshakes and a round of applause, but we saw a very different reaction in Allen Park. Watch as the Lions contingent displays an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm after general manager Bob Quinn makes the pick:
Here's Newmark's reaction to the Walker pick: pic.twitter.com/rpiGcjpQPk
— Pride of Detroit (@PrideOfDetroit) April 28, 2018
(Watch the full video of the pick here)
That man in the top left that is giving up the hardest high fives I’ve ever seen is Lions Director of Player Personnel Lance Newmark. Newmark is a longtime employee of the Lions, dating back two decades inside Detroit’s personnel department. In 2017, Quinn named him as the team’s new Director of Player Personnel.
His enthusiasm suggests this was the guy the Lions (or Newmark himself) really wanted in the third round.
Quinn admitted Detroit was pretty pumped about the pick at the time. “Yeah, we were excited about the pick because there were a few teams in front of us that we were a little nervous about ... There were two teams I think the 10 or 12 picks above us that had visited with him on a 30-visit,” Quinn said.
Quinn refused to reveal the teams’ name, but one of them was very likely the Dallas Cowboys. Several reports confirm the Cowboys used a top 30 visit on Walker, and Dallas held the 81st pick in the draft—the very pick before the Lions selected Walker. Dallas ended up choosing Colorado State receiver Michael Gallup (thanks, Dez!) and the party was on in Detroit.