Notes: A Lions player’s kind high school gesture had Seahawks fan conflicted

Social media can often be a wasteland but there are a few bright spots, like this viral TikTok video centered around a kind-hearted Lions player… made by a Seahawks fan.

Social media can often be a wasteland of bad takes, trolls, bots, and people yelling into the void, but there are often bright spots that uncover themselves if you look hard enough. That was the case on Monday night when the Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks faced off in Primetime.

A Seahawks fan named Peyton Morris was watching the game, and when the Lions took an early 7-0 lead, she posted a video on TikTok of her reflectively smiling with the following caption:

“When you’re a Seahawks fan, but the guy from high school that backed you up against bully is on the Lions.”

Morris’ video has had over 1.7 million views (so far) and nearly a thousand comments from people wanting to know which kind-hearted player she was referring to.

On Wednesday, Morris responded to those questions and recognized Lions offensive lineman Kayode Awosika, who was starting at left guard.

“He and I went to junior high and high school together,” Morris said in the post. “I was not popular and he was one of the star players of the football team and the basketball team, and he had no reason to be nice to me. But he was and that’s just the kind of person he is. And because of that, I am so excited for him. And I love seeing him succeed. And I love to see him play. And it just makes me so happy to see when good things happen to good people. And he deserves all of his success.”

The Lions have put a premium on players with high character and it’s heart-warming to see videos like these go viral to celebrate individuals.

Now, on to the rest of today’s NOTES:

• Speaking of the Lions’ offensive line, they opened the season in the No. 1 spot in PFF’s offensive line rankings but fell to No. 3 after the loss to the Buccaneers. They moved back up to No. 2 after their win over Arizona, and stayed at No. 2 following their win over the Seahawks, despite playing without Frank Ragnow.

Of note from the article, “Sewell leads all right tackles in PFF run-blocking grade through Week 4 (88.1).”

• Reigning NFC Defensive Player of the Month for September, Aidan Hutchinson joined Kay Adams on her YouTube channel “Up & Adams” on Thursday. There’s a short clip below, but if you want to watch the entire video (nearly 9 minutes), it’s available on her YouTube page.

• Fun fact uncovered by the Lions: Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown became just the fifth team in NFL history to have a pair of players both throw and catch a touchdown in a single game.

• I know looking at 2025 Mock Drafts can be kind of silly this time of year, but they can offer some interesting perspectives on what analysts believe the Lions’ needs will be in the offseason, while also providing some prospects who could fit well in Detroit.

Nick Baumgardner knows the Lions as well as anyone who covers the team and he published a mock draft this week for The Athletic and paired Detroit with Elic Ayomanor, WR-X, Stanford—a clear likely need this offseason.

Additionally, I checked in on a couple more mock drafts and there rest of the mock drafters stayed in the trenches. Yahoo Sports Charles McDonald and Nate Tice paired the Lions with Jonah Savaiinaea, OG, Arizona, while PFF’s Trevor Sikkema stayed on the offensive line and gave the Lions Emery Jones Jr., OL, LSU. SB Nation’s JP Acosta switched over to the defensive side of the ball, giving the Lions Nic Scourton, EDGE, Texas A&M, while CBS’ Josh Edwards and USA Today’s Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz paired the Lions with JT Tuimoloau, EDGE, Ohio State.

• Speaking of Nick Baumgardner, he released a video breaking down the Lions offense on his (and Colton Pouncy’s) subscription-based Patreon channel for their podcast, Welcome to Detroit: A Detroit Lions podcast.

• Detroit Football Network’s Justin Rogers also released his weekly film breakdown on his subscription-based substack. Rogers always does a nice job with these and there’s a free seven-day trial if you’re not a subscriber and want to check it out.

• Rams’ Matthew Stafford has now broken into the top 10 in career passing yards with 57,205 of which, 45,109 came while he was in Detroit. The quarterback he knocked out of the top 10 was Eli Manning, who made a clever/funny video “congratulating Stafford”: