Former Notre Dame star DeShone Kizer among negotiation-list players revealed by CFL

He’s currently an NFL free agent, but if quarterback DeShone Kizer would like to kick-start his pro football career, he could do so in the Canadian capital.

The former Notre Dame star is among 10 players currently on the Ottawa Redblacks’ negotiation list, as revealed Thursday by the CFL. That gives the franchise exclusive rights to Kizer should he decide to play football in Canada.

The six-foot-four, 235-pound Kizer has played for four teams since being selected in the second round, No. 52 overall, in the 2017 NFL draft by Cleveland. Following stints with the Browns (2017), Green Bay (2018) and Las Vegas (2019-20), Kizer was released Aug. 5 by Tennessee after the Titans signed quarterback Matt Barkley, who was among 10 players identified on Edmonton’s negotiation list Thursday.

All nine CFL teams revealed 10 players who are currently on their negotiation lists. Not surprisingly, many (39) were quarterbacks, including Bryce Young (B.C. Lions), who’s replacing the departed Mac Jones as the starter at Alabama, the defending American college football champion.

Also on B.C.’s list is Ole Miss’s Matt Corral (a Heisman Trophy candidate) while Penn State starter Sean Clifford is on the Montreal Alouettes’ list.

Nine of the 10 players on B.C.’s list were quarterbacks.

Minnesota State receiver Shane Zylstra remains on Edmonton’s negotiation list. Zylstra’s older brother, Brandon, had 100 catches for 1,687 yards and five TDs with the Elks in 2017 and is currently with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.

Shane Zylstra was recently released by the Vikings.

CFL teams can have up to 45 players on their negotiation list. Players can be added, or removed, at a team’s discretion on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Clubs own exclusive rights to a player as long as they’re on the list.

Negotiation-list players often are a crapshoot for CFL teams, with many never setting foot in Canada. But sometimes the lists can bear fruit as Hamilton kept Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel on its list for years before the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner signed with the Ticats in 2018.

Manziel spent just one season in Canada, splitting the ’18 campaign between Hamilton and Montreal. He was released by the Alouettes in February 2019 and banned by the CFL for violating a condition of his deal with the league.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2021.