{"id":417422,"date":"2026-01-18T13:32:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T13:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/417422\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T13:32:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T13:32:48","slug":"redblacks-release-adarius-pickett-cfl-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/417422\/","title":{"rendered":"REDBLACKS release Adarius Pickett &#8211; CFL.ca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OTTAWA \u2013 The Ottawa REDBLACKS announced on Tuesday that the football club has released defensive back Adarius Pickett.<\/p>\n<p>Pickett was scheduled to become a free agent in February and is ranked at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2025\/12\/05\/cfl-cas-top-30-pending-free-agents-12\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">No. 18 on CFL.ca\u2019s top 30 pending free agents list<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter discussions with his agent, we have decided to release Adarius to allow him to pursue free agency,\u201d said Shawn Burke, vice president of football operations of the Ottawa REDBLACKS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to thank Adarius for his contributions to our club over the past two seasons both on and off the field. We wish him all the best moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RELATED<br \/>\u00bb\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2025\/12\/03\/3-top-pending-free-agents-from-every-east-division-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-original-href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2025\/12\/03\/3-top-pending-free-agents-from-every-east-division-team\/\" aria-label=\"3 top pending free agents from every East Division team - open in a new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"\" data-uw-original->3 top pending free agents from every East Division team<\/a><br \/>\u00bb\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2025\/12\/03\/3-top-pending-free-agents-from-every-west-division-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-original-href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2025\/12\/03\/3-top-pending-free-agents-from-every-west-division-team\/\" aria-label=\"3 top pending free agents from every West Division team - open in a new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"\" data-uw-original->3 top pending free agents from every West Division team<\/a><br \/>\u00bb\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2025\/12\/05\/cfl-cas-top-30-pending-free-agents-12\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-original-href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2025\/12\/05\/cfl-cas-top-30-pending-free-agents-12\/\" aria-label=\"CFL.ca\u2019s top 30 pending free agents - open in a new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"\" data-uw-original->CFL.ca\u2019s top 30 pending free agents<\/a><br \/>\u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2026\/01\/07\/fa-most-wanted-a-breakout-linebacker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-original-href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/2026\/01\/07\/fa-most-wanted-a-breakout-linebacker\/\" aria-label=\"FA Most Wanted: A breakout linebacker - open in a new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"\" data-uw-original->FA Most Wanted: A breakout linebacker<\/a><br \/>\u00bb\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/newsletter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" aria-label=\"Subscribe to the CFL\u2019s newsletter for exclusive offers and league updates - open in a new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-original-href=\"https:\/\/www.cfl.ca\/newsletter\/\" data-uw-original->Subscribe to the CFL\u2019s newsletter for exclusive offers and league updates<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">PICKETT SAYS NO WAY!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\uddd3\ufe0f: Ticats vs. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/REDBLACKS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@REDBLACKS<\/a> LIVE NOW<br \/>\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6: TSN, RDS<br \/>\ud83c\udf0e: CFL+<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CFL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#CFL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lT2N7mxqJP\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/lT2N7mxqJP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CFL (@CFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CFL\/status\/1947076811629998319?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 20, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pickett suited up in 31 games over his two seasons with the REDBLACKS (2024-25), registering 164 total tackles, with 136 defensive tackles, three quarterback sacks and two interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>The former UCLA defensive back has played 79 games over his five seasons in the CFL with the REDBLACKS, Toronto Argonauts (2023) and Montreal Alouettes (2021-22), registering 403 total tackles, 337 defensive tackles, 14 quarterback sacks and four interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>                                <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2013 The Ottawa REDBLACKS announced on Tuesday that the football club has released defensive back Adarius Pickett.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-417422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}