Notes: Watch this emotional video of Aidan Hutchinson on Draft Day

Rookie defensive end Aidan Hutchinson posted a nice video to Instagram and Twitter that follows his experience on draft day. The cameras were on from early preparations to get dressed and share inspirational messages with family to the post-selection festivities as a newly-drafted Detroit Lion. The video is nearly six minutes in length and has some great moments.

The first three minutes showing the rookie presenting his mother with a special gift in the hotel suites before leaving for the draft are touching. The depth of meaning behind the dog tags is not quite captured by the intro segment (the entire video is only six minutes, after all). According to an Associated Press story by Larry Lage from late April:

Hutchinson wore his great-grandfather’s dog tag against Ohio State during his freshman year, but was afraid of losing it and didn’t wear them in a game again. His mother, meanwhile, had her grandfather’s dog tag with her at every Michigan game the past three seasons.

If anyone else didn’t know about the backstory, don’t feel so bad because neither did I. When Aidan Hutchinson flips the tags over to show his mother the back side of the tags they’ve created for her (around 1:34 in the video), I stopped and did a double take. “You got Merrill’s Marauders, take the next step 11-11.”

That specific unit his great-grandfather was with in World War II also has profound connections for a lot of Japanese-Americans. For me, it’s my grandfather’s brother, who our family knew as “Uncle Herbert” on the Big Island. You can imagine my surprise when that association bell was rung during a Detroit Lions draft day video of all things.

That just makes me want to root for this guy even harder, if that was even possible. Be sure to check out the video; it’s a good one. Now, on to the rest of today’s Notes:

• Courtesy of Jameson Williams and Aidan Hutchinson both posting to social media at the NFLPA Rookie Premier in Los Angeles, here are your two first-round Detroit selections suited up:

• Tim Twentyman from the official team site posted a questions mailbag column touching on the atmosphere at Allen Park, expectations both for the rookies and the team overall, and which players may have a future in coaching.

• Jordyn Pair with MLive has an update on the joint cannabis venture founded by former Lions Rob Sims and Calvin Johnson.

• Coming back to Jameson Williams at the NFLPA Rookie Premiere for a second. The guy just seems to be really happy and having a blast all the time:

• Earlier in May, we learned former Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia will have a major role with the Patriots offense and could be headed for playcalling duties. Let’s check in on how that’s going:

• The Lions, who have already signed all of their rookies except Josh Paschal, appear to be ahead of the game. One weird trend? Almost none of the fourth round selections (the Lions did not have one) are signed; 36 of 38 fourth-round rookies remain unsigned by their teams. Why? Here’s a Patriots cap guy with the answer: