Report: Jarryd Hayne will sign with Lions

For months now, there has been speculation about the Detroit Lions potentially signing Australian rugby league star Jarryd Hayne. Hayne has drawn interest from multiple NFL teams as he looks to transition to the world of American football, but there have seemingly been numerous delays along the way keeping an official deal from happening (getting a visa, getting all of the necessary paperwork in order, etc.).

Now, it looks as though Hayne is finally ready to make his transition to the NFL official, and it appears that he is in fact going to join the Lions. The Daily Telegraph in Australia is reporting that Hayne "will formally announce he has secured a deal with the Detroit Lions at a press conference in Sydney this week." Also according to that report, Hayne is going to play running back for the Lions.

This isn't the Lions' first out of the box type of signing. Most notably, they brought in "Kickalicious" (a.k.a. Havard Rugland) from Norway to compete for their starting kicker job in training camp in 2013, and they briefly had American rugby star Carlin Isles on their roster last offseason. Isles ultimately decided to stick with rugby, while Rugland was simply let go at the end of camp.

It's tough to even predict what type of impact Hayne might make once he officially joins the Lions. I'm assuming his main focus will be on contributing on special teams, but it will be interesting to see what he brings to the table as a more traditional running back. Just in general, Hayne's journey to the NFL will make for a pretty interesting storyline to follow throughout the offseason.