Kizer convinced he can get job done
CLEVELAND — DeShone Kizer hasn’t lost hope the Browns can turn their season around.
Heck, if St. Pius did it, so can Cleveland.
The rookie quarterback was once on a team that started 0- 11, found its groove and won 11 straight games while making an improbable run all the way to the championship game.
“In seventh grade playing for St. Pius,” Kizer said, smiling. “We had a not-sogoodbaseball team. So I’ve been here and I’ve overcome some losses and a tough start. Obviously it was in CYO baseball, but at the time it was pretty cool.”
With Kizer starting again after a one-week benching, the not-sogood Browns (0-6) will again try to get their first victory on Sunday when they face the Tennessee Titans (3-3), who are coming off a comeback win on Monday night against Indianapolis.
Kizer is making his own comeback, returning to the starting lineup after spending last Sunday’s game in Houston watching and learning from the sideline while Kevin Hogan took some lumps and threw three interceptions in a 33- 17 loss to Houston.
Browns coach Hue Jackson felt Kizer needed to slow down, step aside for one game to observe and hopefully gain a new perspective. Kizer’s nine interceptions in Cleveland’s first five games and redzone turnovers took away any chance the Browns had to win. Jackson, who benched the second-round pick at halftime the previous week against the New York Jets, put his 21- year- old QB into something akin to a timeout for grown-ups.
Kizer responded the way Jackson hoped as the Browns made their 20th quarterback switch in 43 games.
“If a guy can learn the lessons and he can regurgitate it back to me in conversation and in work, and me seeing those things change, then hopefully lessons are learned,” said Jackson, 1- 21 in two seasons with Cleveland. “Everybody is different. Some people, it takes longer. Some people, it doesn’t. DeShone, I didn’t know how long it was going to take. I just knew he was going to play again.”
Kizer is grateful for the second chance, and wants to reward Jackson’s faith. He said the one-week demotion rekindled his competitive fire and he came back to work this week determined not to surrender his starting job again.
“This is, in my opinion, the greatest job on Earth and also the most difficult job on Earth,” Kizer said. “But I’m enjoying it. There’s no other place I’d rather be than right here going through the things that we’re going through because I’m learning who I am personally, and I’m learning about everyone around me. And it’s just going to make it that much sweeter when we do figure this thing out and I figure this thing out and become the quarterback I want to be.”
As for that middleschool baseball team he once pitched for, Kizer said the dream season for St. Pius lacked a fairy- tale ending in the title game.
“We got destroyed,” he said. “Absolutely destroyed.”