Historically a franchise that has struggled to get its first-round picks to camp on time, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the deadline this year with plenty of room to spare, reaching a seven-year agreement with tailback Larry Johnson Thursday afternoon.

The former Penn State star was the 27th player chosen overall, after Kansas City orchestrated a trade with Pittsburgh to drop back 12 spots in the round. The Chiefs are scheduled to report to training camp on Saturday.

The contract is worth $8.847 million and includes a signing bonus of $3.31 million. If Johnson reaches certain playing time benchmarks, the contract voids to five years and is worth $6.7 million. The signing bonus represents a 10.3 percent increase over the upfront money received by last year's 27th choice, cornerback Mike Rumph of San Francisco.

The base salaries are $452,000 (2003), $515,000 (2004), $628,000 (2005), $741,000 (2006), $854,000 (2007), $967,000 (2008) and $1.08 million (2009). There are workout bonuses of $50,000 each for 2004-2009.

Johnson is only the second player chosen in the first round to reach a contract accord. Chiefs president Carl Peterson acknowledged that Johnson's agent, Marvin Demoff, helped considerably in facilitating the discussions. There is a long relationship between the two men.

"As we said when we drafted Larry, he is coming to the Chiefs to learn from a very talented running back and Larry gives us tremendous insurance at that position," Peterson said. "He has a lot to learn in the NFL, but he has the talent and work ethic to help the Chiefs in his first year and for many years to come."

It was suggested when the Chiefs chose Johnson that they did so to provide themselves a safety net against the possibility that standout tailback Priest Holmes might not be fully recovered from hip surgery for the start of camp. But team officials, as well as Holmes, have said in recent days that he will be ready for the start of workouts.

Still at issue is Holmes' desire to upgrade his contract. Peterson acknowledged last week that the Chiefs will consider a contract extension if Holmes is healthy. Holmes said that, while he will report to camp on time, he might skip the regular-season opener if he does not have a reworked contract by then.

One of the most celebrated players in Penn State history, Johnson is a powerful tailback with excellent vision and deftness to go along with his strength between the tackles. He rushed for 2,087 yards in 2002 after starting just six games in his first three seasons for the Nittany Lions.

"My goal was to get the business part of things out of the way and to get down to football," Johnson said. "We did that, and I'm anxious to get to camp now and to really get my career going."

Johnson, 23, finished his college career with 2,953 yards and 26 touchdowns on 460 carries. He had 65 receptions for 681 yards and seven touchdowns as well.

While the Chiefs have some veteran backups to Holmes, none are very experienced, and it is conceivable Johnson could claim the No. 2 spot on the depth chart