The Buffalo Bills were psyched the Detroit Lions drafted T.J. Hockenson

The patrons inside the Buffalo Bills war room were holding their breath early Thursday night. The Detroit Lions were on the clock with the eighth overall pick and the Bills were up next. With the New York Giants having made a surprising pick in Duke quarterback Daniel Jones, the board had fallen favorably for both teams. But the Bills were holding out hope for one player in particular.

The Bills released a behind-the-scenes video of their war room during draft weekend, and we can see their real-time reactions when the Lions decided to select Iowa tight end T.J. Hockenson (at the 1:00 mark):

Bills general manager Brandon Beane gave a hefty fist bump, as he exclaimed “Yes!” and the war room crowd gave a tepid round of applause.

“When Detroit was on the clock, we had good grades on a few guys, but Ed (Oliver) was the highest guy on our board, and the draft room was really excited when the pick was in,” Beane explained afterwards.

This is interesting for a few reasons. Mainly, the Bills had tight end as one of their biggest needs in the draft, so Hockenson would’ve made sense for them. However, though they clearly favored Ed Oliver. Later in the fourth round, the Bills would trade up to get their tight end: Ole Miss’ Dawson Knox.

Of course, this doesn’t mean the Lions were wrong or the Bills were right in their priorities. That won’t be decided until years from now. Regardless, we now know based on the comments of Lions general manager Bob Quinn that an undersized prospect like Ed Oliver probably wasn’t as high on their boards as other team’s boards, considering Detroit’s scheme calls for bigger, bulkier players.

That being said, you have to wonder if Buffalo simply thought the tight end position wasn’t worthy of a top-10 pick and was a need they could address later in a somewhat deep tight end class.

Either way, this is a fascinating look into how Thursday unfolded. Let’s hope this becomes a trend for teams to be this transparent (the Colts made a similar video, too).