Raiders Rumors: Former Packers QB DeShone Kizer Claimed on Waivers

The Oakland Raiders reportedly claimed quarterback DeShone Kizer on waivers after he was released by the Green Bay Packers.

Field Yates of ESPN reported the news. The Raiders now have four quarterbacks on their roster, an atypical number that may spell the end of either Mike Glennon or Nathan Peterman's time with the team.

The Packers released Kizer this week after he lost the backup quarterback job to Tim Boyle. The Notre Dame product was a 2017 second-round pick of the Cleveland Browns and started 15 games as a rookie, throwing for 2,894 yards and 11 touchdowns against 22 interceptions. Cleveland lost all 15 games Kizer started.

Kizer threw for 187 yards and two picks during three brief appearances last season in Green Bay. In a July interview with Jim Owczarski of the Green Bay Post-Gazette, Kizer said he had a lofty goal for his career: 

"Personnel, especially in this organization, is strictly upstairs. And I don't work upstairs. My office is downstairs. Therefore, my mentality is about me. I have all the confidence in the world that when I'm playing my best ball there's no one who can stop me.

"For me to compare myself to another backup quarterback who's in or a tryout guy who comes in would be dumb of me in the sense that I would be limiting myself because I don't see myself as a career backup in this league.

"I don't see myself as Aaron Rodgers' backup for the final era of his career. I see myself as a future Super Bowl MVP. That's the goal that I want to head toward. That's the level I want to play at. Therefore, if I'm competing and focused in on the backup competition, then once again, I'm limiting myself."

Raiders coach Jon Gruden clearly sees some level of potential in Kizer to add him to a roster that already includes two other backup quarterbacks. Gruden was complimentary of Kizer after he went through the coach's "QB Camp" when he was a broadcaster at ESPN. Whereas the Browns threw Kizer into the fire right away, Gruden saw a quarterback who needed developmental time.

Perhaps Gruden sees this as a chance that Kizer never got in Cleveland.