What other non-lion animal did they end up drawing?

Five years ago, there was an incredible video from NFL Rush (a league-affiliated social media account for fun bits about the players) showing Rookies from the 2018 class drawing their team logos from memory. Running back Kerryon Johnson was in the video for the Lions, and he came up with an amazing stick-figure Lion sporting a yellow mane in spite of the official logo using only blue, white, and silver.

Last year, 2022 first-round pick Jameson Williams produced some sort of black shelled turtle and just giggled to himself about it. Aidan Hutchinson even admitted on camera that his four-legged blue octopus looked like it was from Monsters, Inc.

The league is back at it again, this time with the 2023 rookies in a short Instagram video making an effort at re-creating their team logos. Representing the Lions were tight end Sam LaPorta and running back Jahmyr Gibbs:

Big respect to Gibbs who knew the leaping lion was outlined in silver, but I also kind of liked the Cookie Monster vibe that LaPorta had going on. Hopefully this is just a sneak preview and the league releases a longer video with more of them playing with paint like they did in 2018 and 2022. Until then, we’re thankful to have even these fleeting glances at our 2023 rookie class’ artistic greatness.

Now, on to the rest of your Memorial Day Weekend Notes:

• Rookie quarterback Hendon Hooker was on “Good Morning Football.” The entire segment was posted to GMFB’s YouTube channel, but they also tweeted out a shorter clip:

• Speaking of Hendon Hooker, Mike Tanier believes Hooker is one of the best third-string quarterbacks in the league right now. You read that correctly: Tanier is not ranking backup quarterbacks, but the third-string guys behind the backups. The Lions rookie is one spot ahead of Malik Willis on the Titans and one spot behind former Jeff Fisher Rams starter Case Keenum

• Assistant defensive line coach Cam Davis and interior run stuffer Alim McNeill were guests on this week’s episode of Tim Twentyman’s podcast Twentyman in the Huddle. You can watch video of the episode on the team’s official YouTube channel.

• The team also posted full video of the player media sessions from Thursday for Tracy Walker, Aidan Hutchinson, Jameson Williams, Alex Anzalone, and Halapoulivaati Vaitiai on their YouTube channel.

• From the Detroit Free Press’ Dave Birkett we have an article about how devastating it felt to Halapoulivaati Vaitai to lose the 2022 season to injury (see the Thursday player media sessions above). Big V was injured in the last game of the 2022 preseason and went to IR before Week 1.

• James Dator from the SB Nation mothership site believes the Lions are one of the six teams that should be interested in going after newly-released wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins.

• The latest episode of the Dungeon of Doom podcast with Ben Raven and Kyle Meinke of MLive is up. This week, Ben and Kyle talked about Lions OTA takeaways. The full audio can be listened to in a web player on Spotify.

• Also from Raven is this article at MLive about how the Lions “expect linebacker competition to lift defense after adding even more.”

• Not Lions-related, but my goodness Chris Brown is right. Peak man in black Jerry Glanville in a modern social media environment would have been amazing. 2 Legit 2 Quit: