Matt Asiata has signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Lions.

Asiata had an extended tryout with the team during rookie minicamp two weeks ago and the Lions didn't initially sign him. After the first week of OTAs, though, the team made a move.

Asiata has played his entire career with the Minnesota Vikings, recording 361 carries for 1,259 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also showed some ability as a receiver, catching 101 passes for 722 yards and a touchdown.

"Anybody knows who has seen him work, he's a good special-teamer," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said before the minicamp. "He's tough. He's a very good pass protector and he carries the ball. He runs behind his pads. He's always been a very, very effective player in this league."

While there's no real animosity between the longtime star and the franchise, former Lions receiver Calvin Johnson told the Detroit Free Press on Saturday he wasn't completely pleased with how he was treated by the club when he retired in March 2016.

When the newspaper asked Johnson about the possibility of his No. 81 jersey being retired -- something the franchise did not do last season, nor did it honor him in any significant way -- he said he doesn't like to talk about the Lions much.

"I don't even like to talk Lions too much just because the way our relationship ended," Johnson told the newspaper. "If they see me around here, we'll see. But hey, I don't know.

"I just didn't feel like I was treated the way I should have been treated on the way out. That's all. I mean, it's all good. I'm not tripping. I don't feel any kind of way, just hey, that's what they did. Hey, it is what it is."

Former Detroit Lions All-Pro linebacker and kicker Wayne Walker has died at the age of 80.

Walker, the Lions' fourth-round pick in 1958, played 15 seasons with Detroit, and when he retired he held a team record with 200 games played -- a mark since passed by Jason Hanson.

Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions have opened up extension talks.

Stafford will make $16.5 million in 2017, the final season of a five-year deal he signed in 2013.

“We’re in the early stages,” Bob Quinn said Wednesday. “It’s really too early to kind of give any update but we’re going through the process. These things don’t happen overnight.

“I feel confident we can get something done.”