Hayne, who hoped to play as a running back, was believed to be holidaying in Bali. The Detroit Free Press's NFL correspondent Dave Birkett said the indications were that the 26-year-old Australian would eventually receive a futures contract because Hayne represented a "low risk".

"In season the rosters are 53 players big, out of season they're up to 90 players," Birkett said. "So this is the time when you would look at a development guy like [Hayne] and sign him to [the futures]. Essentially that allows him to train, go through the whole off-season training camp with the team. He'd go to training camp with the team, that way [the Lions] would be able to assess how far he has come and whether he has a shot to make the 53-man roster."

Birkett, who has covered the Lions for the past five seasons and seen many of the players from other sports and countries that the Lions has trialled, said even if Hayne failed to make the 53-man roster, it did not mean his NFL dream was over. "There is also a practice squad," he said. "It was 10 players this year, it was eight in the past. From the Lions' standpoint, it's a low-risk move. You're not giving him any guaranteed money necessarily. You're giving him a chance, you're getting him in to see what he can do from an athletic standpoint, but certainly they think he's talented enough, athletic enough with a little bit of seasoning that maybe he could turn into an NFL player."

Birkett said while Detroit's fans knew very little about Hayne they were definitely intrigued by him and figured for a "rugby" star to make the switch from super stardom in Australia to the great unknown of the NFL indicated there was "something" there. "From the Lions' fans' standpoint, they don't know necessarily whether he can make it or not," he said. "But they know there's no risk from [the club's] part and they think he's athletic enough to do it. So there's hope from the Lions' standpoint."

The Lions are renowned for taking punts on athletes from outside of the US football system. They trialled a German wide receiver and Norwegian kicker spotted on YouTube, while in 2013 they signed US rugby sevens star Carlin Isles to a futures contract. When Isles and the Lions parted ways, his agent said it was due to his client's desire to chase a sevens spot at the 2016 Olympics. However, reports from the US suggested that despite it being apparent he had raw talent, the gulf between his natural gifts and the likelihood of developing into a bona fide NFL player were too vast.