Lions announce signings of rookies NT Alim McNeill and RB Jermar Jefferson

Late Thursday night it was reported that the Detroit Lions has signed third-round pick NT Alim McNeill. This morning the team confirmed the signing as well as also announcing that they had signed seventh-round pick RB Jermar Jefferson.

While McNeill’s contract details were made available in last night's report, Jefferson’s have not been made available at this time. Jefferson is expected to carry a cap hit of roughly $680,000 based on the rookie pay scale for where he was drafted.

“Jermar (Jefferson) was actually one that early on in the process, I want to say during the first week of meetings, you know, in February, really impressive of he’s such an instinctive runner,” general manager Brad Holmes said. “He has a natural feel to be a slippery inside player. He runs hard, he just has a natural feel from a lot of inside zone stuff. But he can do all phases, gap power stuff, inside zone stuff. But he’s just a very smooth, slippery, instinctive runner who we’re really excited about.”

The Lions now have two of their seven rookies under contract ahead of rookie mini-camp, which starts today. The Lions typically get all their rookies signed before they participate in rookie camp, which means we will likely be hearing about the rest of the draft class soon, save first-round pick Penei Sewell, who will miss camp after testing positive for COVID-19.