The Lions have signed 27-year old TE John Madsen.  Madsen last played in a NFL game in 2008 with the Raiders.  Madsen has played in 35 games in his NFL career and he has caught 19 passes for 248 yards (13.1 avg) with 2 TD grabs.  He will have a hard time making the Lions due to the depth the team has at TE but it never hurts to give a player like Madsen a chance in training camp to show what he can do.

UPDATE:  (5/13/2010) – The Lions have already released Madsen.  Wow, that didn’t take too long.

The Lions have signed 27-year old safety C.C. Brown.  Brown played in all 16 games for the Giants last season and he had 69 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss, 3 forced fumbles and he defensed 3 passes.  He has now played in 66 games in his NFL career in which he has 324 tackles, defensed 19 passes, he has 1 sack, forced 7 fumbles and he has 3 interceptions.  Brown will likely compete for the starting job at one of the safety positions for the Lions this year.

The Lions have picked WR Tim Toone with the 255th overall pick (7th round) of the NFL Draft.  Toone was the last pick in the NFL Draft as he is now known as Mr. Irrelevant.  Toone is a 5’10″, 165 pound WR out of Weber State.  He caught 83 passes for 1,104 yards (13.3 avg) with 10 TD grabs last season.  Toone has caught 206 passes in his time at Weber State for 3,602 yards (17.5 avg) with 29 TD grabs.  Lions’ coaches appear to like Toone a lot so don’t bet against him making the opening day roster this season.

The Lions have picked DE Willie Young with the 213rd overall pick (7th round) of the NFL Draft.  Young is 6’4″, 251 pounds but he plays faster than his timed speed of a 4.89 40.  Young is often pushed around when the opposition decides to run the ball.  He is a good enough athlete though to get into opposing backfields and make things happen.  Young played in 12 games (all starts) at North Carolina State last season in which he had 54 tackles, 14 tackles for a loss, he had 8 sacks, batted down 3 passes and he forced 2 fumbles.  Young played in 49 games (36 starts) in his four years at North Carolina State and he finished up with 200 tackles, 47.5 tackles for a loss, he had 20.5 sacks, batted down 13 passes, he forced 3 fumbles and he recovered 2 fumbles.  He could wind up being a steal of the Lions as most draft experts had him going in the 4th or 5th round.

The Lions have picked OT Jason Fox with the 128th overall pick (4th round) of the NFL Draft.  Fox is 6’6″, 300 pounds and he is a converted TE.  He is great at leading sweeps as he is very athletic and he is a solid pass blocker.  But, he is not especially strong at the point of attack.  Fox played in 11 games (all starts) for the Miami (Fl) Hurricanes last season and he started 47 games in his four years there.  This was a solid pick for the Lions as Fox could be a starter in the near future for them.