ALLEN PARK -- It was one of the first weeks of July, during the month-long wait for training camp, when Matthew Stafford came up with a plan.

He wanted some of his receivers at his place to condition and throw. It's something established quarterbacks sometimes do to get a passing game ready for the season, except Stafford's home was all the way down in Atlanta. And he was paying for the trip.

The ninth-year quarterback felt like he needed to given that one of the participants had been a professional for all of a couple months. A fourth-round rookie with all of a $150,000 signing bonus to pull from, Michael Roberts was so new to life with the Detroit Lions, his strongest connection with Stafford had recently been playing as him in "Madden."

Stafford certainly had the money, and he was working on getting a whole lot more. Talks were buzzing between his agent and the Lions about a contract that had the chance to make him the richest player in NFL history at more than $25 million per season.

But Stafford has said the contract negotiations are out of his head most of the time as a simple game of football takes the focus. That was true this summer when he asked Roberts, Jace Billingsley and Eric Ebron to join him for a few days at his place.

This was Roberts' first introduction to the life behind Stafford the player, and he got to see it in how he interacted with his wife and his newborn twin daughters.

"I never actually got a chance to really bond with my quarterback (before the trip)," Roberts said "I got to learn what he wants, what he's looking for and really how he feels when I'm in a certain position, where he's going to throw the ball."

Detroit Lions Training Camp - August 1, 2017 40 Gallery: Detroit Lions Training Camp - August 1, 2017

The visit helped him work on his routes, which are one of the biggest adjustments to the NFL from college. His main takeaway, though, was how it set him up for the expectations that follow with being a pro. When he came back, he felt ready for the conditioning test the first day. He didn't wake up an hour before practice like he did during voluntary workouts.

Weeks later, he's in his first training camp with the Lions, and the results have been mixed. When he's caught the ball in team settings, he's impressed with how smoothly he glides for a player measuring 6 feet 4 inches and 263 pounds. But he's struggled to maintain the ball with some drops and a fumble in the first couple days.

He's finding it's an adjustment to catching at the pro level with passes that zip more, with a football that's a little bigger and with hash marks that are closer together and change the spacing. It's one of a few layers to the transition that often slows tight ends down, the kind that was difficult for Eric Ebron to handle early on in his career.

"Obviously, the tight end position is in-line, it's in-line blocking, it's in-line receiving, but it's detached because we put them anywhere and everywhere," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. "Plus, he's in the backfield, so he's got to know all the protections.

"So when you look at those guys, it's almost like three positions."

Roberts has been candid about his struggles early on and the learning curve he's trying to tackle. It was always going to be there for a fourth-round Toledo tight end who took some time off between high school and college football.

He's finding his best chance might be to lean on Stafford through the ups and the downs. He'll ride with the quarterback who has started for nine seasons, whom he used to play as in Madden, who could soon be the richest player in league history and who took the time to fly a fourth-round rookie down to get him up to speed before training camp.

"I think it's very important just to know the basics of someone," Roberts said. "I'm going to play with him. I'm going to protect him.

"That chemistry is building. I'm trying to build it every day with him."