ALAMEDA, Calif. _ The Raiders have claimed former Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns DeShone Kizer off waivers.
Kizer was waived by Green Bay Saturday with Tim Boyce earning the job to back up Aaron Rodgers. Green Bay opted to keep two quarterbacks.
When the Raiders reached their initial 53-man roster, they had three quarterbacks _ Derek Carr, Mike Glennon and Nathan Peterman. Kizer makes four. General manager Mike Mayock said Saturday the Raiders would likely keep three. Some teams keep only two.
By the time the Raiders face the Denver Broncos in Week 1, expect three quarterbacks to be on the roster.
As a corresponding move, the Raiders announced the release of defensive end Josh Mauro. Mauro was listed with the first team throughout training camp but missed time with a hamstring injury. He returned to play extensively in the exhibition finale in Seattle.
Kizer was a 15-game starter for Cleveland in 2017 as a rookie second-round draft pick out of Notre Dame. He completed 53.6% of his passes (275 of 518) for 3,081 yards, 11 touchdowns and 24 interceptions as the Browns had an 0-16 season.
Kizer was traded from the Browns to the Packers following the season in exchange for safety Damarious Randall and a swap of the team's fourth- and fifth-round draft picks.
A year ago, coach Jon Gruden wound up cutting both of his reserve quarterbacks _ Connor Cook and EJ Manuel _ and traded a fifth-round draft pick for A.J. McCarron.
Besides having a strong arm, Kiser has the kind of mobility Gruden likes, having rushed for 419 yards with five touchdowns for Cleveland in 2017. Playing against the Raiders in the third exhibition game in Winnipeg, Kizer completed 4 of 7 passes for 25 yards with an interception and was sacked three times.
In exhibition games, Kizer was 25 of 45 for 273 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Boyle, who threw six touchdown passes with no interceptions, earned the job as backup.
In a pre-draft feature while Gruden was working for ESPN, he had the following analysis of Kizer:
"I did like his obvious size and the strength of his arm is impressive. Would I use a first round pick on him? Probably not. I don't think the body of work is complete. There are some things that he's got to resolve in terms of end-of-game situations, winning, there's some things he's still a little rough around the edges. From a talent standpoint he's got a lot of ability. He's athletic, he's tough and he's got a cannon for an arm. I do think I would probably have a hard time taking him in the first round this year."
When Mayock did his pre-draft evalation for NFL Network, he had Kizer rated as the top quarterback ahead of DeShaun Watson, Mitch Trubisky and _ gulp _ Patrick Mahomes. Mayock thought at the time none were top 10 prospects or ready to start in the NFL as rookies.
"He's a prototype quarterback in the NFL, a 6-5, 235, 240-pound quarterback, he's got a big arm. He's got a quick release," Mayock said. "He's athletic. He's smart. He's got enough athletic ability to move around the pocket. I love his physical traits. I think he'll work hard and I know he's smart."
Mayock said the concern was Kizer had the difficulties in the fourth quarters of several games for Notre Dame and that his "pocket mechanics fell apart ... the reason I h ave him as the No. 1 quarterback is I think he's got the highest ceiling of any of the quarterbacks."
