Notes: Lions donating over $500,000 to food banks during NFL Draft-A-Thon

As part of the 2020 NFL Draft-A-Thon, the Detroit Lions are supporting Feeding America with over $500,000 that will go to local food banks in Michigan.

The Lions are contributing $500,000 with support owner and Chairman Martha Firestone Ford and her family. Both general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia will also contribute $1,000 per draft pick — each.

Money raised during the Draft-A-Thon will support six national nonprofits, including Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, American Red Cross, United Way, Salvation Army, and the CDC Foundation. The Lions selected Feeding America, which helps food banks feed their respective communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lions released the following statement:

“We as an organization owe a great deal of gratitude and appreciation to everybody in our community and across the nation working hard to combat these difficult circumstances. Here in Detroit, we stand by all the people affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Our team is thrilled to partner with Feeding America in support of the NFL’s Draft-A-Thon, which will serve as a unifying effort across the NFL during an exciting Draft weekend and hopefully inspire contributions from more people toward these important causes. We encourage our fans to join us in supporting Feeding America.”

You can read more on their website, detroitlions.com.

And onto the rest of your notes (lots today):

• On Sunday, the Detroit Lions live-tweeted a replay of the 2013 game against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, complete with old video of the game, and new commentary from Matthew Stafford, Joique Bell, and Kris Durham. It’s really neat hearing them all break down what they were thinking at the time.

• Speaking of, Lions put on their YouTube page all the field-level highlights from that game.

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• “The Lions hold this season’s first true wild card. And how they play it—whether they go safe, or go for broke—will shape not only the draft this season, but the franchise and a handful of others for years to come.” The Ringer’s Shaker Samman explains why the Lions are the most interesting team of the NFL draft’s first round.
• Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News on picking Ohio State cornerback Jeff Okudah: “Never has a pick looked so right and felt so wrong. Let me explain.”
• Take a look at this piece by Over the Cap’s Nick Korte — the Lions are on the very low end of estimated UDFA signings, he explains what that means (peep the Miami Dolphins having to provide two UDFAs).

• Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press’s latest mock draft includes some first-round trades.
• Offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitai’s position versatility could open up draft for Lions, write Tim Twentyman for detroitlions.com.
• Justin Rogers for The Detroit News tells the story of one scout’s tireless work mining NFL draft talent amid tragedy at home.
• NFL.com’s Marc Sessler has some.. Uhhh, not so great comments about the Lions offseason in his NFC analysis if you’d like to take a look at those.
• The Lions announced on April 3 their player-led social justice initiative, Detroit Lions Inspire Change, would fund the Empowerment Plan’s operations for the month of April to make gowns and masks. Looks like it’s up and running: