In a move completed with calculated stealth, and outside the eye of the media, the Atlanta Falcons reached agreement Friday afternoon with their first-round draft choice, tailback T.J. Duckett, the former Michigan State star who should provide power to the Falcons' running game.

Duckett will sign a six-year contract that voids back to five seasons if he simply achieves minimal playing time levels. The five-year value of the contract is $7.5 million. The combined signing bonus and second-level option bonus due next spring is $5 million.

The deal came after Duckett, the 18th player selected, had missed the first eight days of training camp as the two sides principally haggled over the size of the guaranteed money. League sources said that agent Joel Segal quietly flew to Greenville, S.C., and the Falcons' training camp on Friday morning to meet with club officials.

It was the first and, as it turned out, also the last, face-to-face negotiating session. The meeting, unannounced to the local media, took place at a Greenville hotel, with Atlanta represented by chief financial officer Ray Anderson and Bobby Beathard, the special consultant to owner Arthur Blank.

There were times when talks grew heated, particularly last week when team officials publicly questioned the severity of the injuries Duckett suffered when he was beaten after a concert. The matter was resolved when Duckett and Segal permitted the player to be examined by a physician retained by the team. The doctor found the injuries to be exactly as Duckett said they were, essentially a chipped tooth and a lacerated lower lip.

"He went through a very difficult couple of weeks personally with that incident that occurred,'' Falcons owner Arthur Blank told The Associated Press. "For a young man to handle it as well as he did, that's the kind of person that he is.''

Duckett figures to split playing time with veteran Warrick Dunn, the lightning-quick tailback acquired from Tampa Bay as an unrestricted free agent this spring.

Falcons coach Dan Reeves told The Associated Press that the Falcons do not want to rush Duckett. He will not participate in goal-line drills planned for Saturday.

"The main thing you don't want to do is put him in there too soon, so we've just got to see how he feels,'' Reeves said. "When people do report late and they do get injured, it's always a big story. We're just hoping he has a great career. We have high hopes for him or we wouldn't have drafted him.''

The former Spartans star has explosive speed for a back his size (6-foot-0, 250 pounds), but blends his big-play potential with raw power. He is a durable workhorse who reads the hole well and runs with great balance and vision.

In 35 games, including 22 starts, Duckett rushed for 3,379 yards and 29 touchdowns on 621 carries at Michigan State. He caught only 22 passes for 151 yards, but impressed scouts at the combine and in private workouts with his soft hands.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.