Johnny Manziel, CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats Deadline for Contract Signing Revealed

Johnny Manziel is one step closer to making his debut in the Canadian Football League. 

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the quarterback has given the Hamilton Tiger-Cats the exclusive rights to negotiate with him until Jan. 31. Manziel's agent, Erik Burkhardt, provided an update on the process, via Rapoport:

"So that there will not be any ambiguity in regards to financial expectations, and so the public understands how seriously Johnny is considering this move, I will tell you that we believe 'fair deal' means on par with what Hamilton has paid their QB in recent years, despite not having much on-field success. If we cannot reach a deal with Hamilton by this date, we will turn our focus to several other professional options readily available to us."

Manziel and Burkhardt have met with team CEO Scott Mitchell and worked out for Coach June Jones.

CFL teams have the ability to keep a player's rights for as long as necessary, and Hamilton claimed Manziel when he was a freshman at Texas A&M.

While the quarterback likely wasn't thinking about anything besides the NFL at the time, especially considering his Heisman Trophy season in 2012, things have gone south for the young player since then. The 2014 first-round NFL draft pick only made eight career starts for the Cleveland Browns, producing a 74.4 quarterback rating and a 2-6 record.

He was released following the 2015 season.

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie approved Manziel potentially joining the league in December following review of his background and an interview with the player, per Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.

Meanwhile, Jones is happy about the Manziel's potential if he does end up joining the Tiger-Cats.

"I think he'd be the best player to ever play up here," the head coach said, per the league's official site. "He can throw it and he can run it like nobody ever has been able to do."

Now the only challenge for Hamilton is to lock him down to a fair contract before the month is over.