The first 2011 Detroit Lions draft pick to agree to a deal with the team is South Carolina State offensive tackle Johnny Culbreath. Culbreath, who was selected in the seventh round by the Lions in April's draft, agreed to a four-year contract on Wednesday night. The plan is for him to sign it on Thursday before the Lions begin training camp.
With Culbreath's deal out of the way, the Lions now have four rookies left to sign: defensive tackle Nick Fairley (first round), running back Mikel Leshoure (second round), wide receiver Titus Young (second round) and linebacker Doug Hogue (fifth round).
Currently there is no indication of how long these deals will take to get worked out, but Fairley is hoping his is done before practice begins since he doesn't want to miss any activities.
"It’d probably be a setback coming in as my first year," Fairley said. "So hopefully like I said they can hurry up and get it done so I don’t miss no days and I don’t miss no meetings."
With the way the rookie wage system is set up in the new CBA, holdouts aren't expected, so I would anticipate all of the Lions' rookies to be signed before practice starts on Friday.