The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Browns nab QB Kizer at No. 52
In less time than it takes to say the player’s name, the Browns made a pick they hope will transform their team for the next 10 years.
And all they had to do was sit and wait for their turn in the second round of the draft to do it.
The Browns, after passing on quarterbacks in the first round, used the 52nd overall overall pick — the 20th pick of the second round — to choose DeShone Kizer of Notre Dame. Browns Executive of Football Operations Sashi Brown said he was surprised Kizer was still available when the Browns used the pick acquired from the Titans last year.
“He’s a guy that fell to us in the draft at the right value,” Brown said. “He’s a guy that’s played really good football. Various people have talked about how he did not have the year he wanted to have last year. He recognizes that. But he has tremendous skills to work with — rare skills — and traits to work with.”
Kizer, 6-foot-4, 233 pounds, threw 47 touchdown passes and 19 interceptions in two seasons for the Fighting Irish.
“He can throw it; he has a big arm,” Mike Mayock of NFL Network said after the Browns made the pick.
Daniel Jeremiah, also of NFL Network, compared Kizer to Carson Palmer, the starting quarterback of the Cardinals and the first player taken in the draft in 2003 by the Bengals.
Kizer will compete with Cody Kessler and Brock Osweiler for the starting job.
Kizer put up decent numbers last year when he threw 26 touchdown passes and nine interceptions, but Notre Dame was 4-8. The question that kept revolving around Kizer and why his draft stock dropped was if he was so good, then why couldn’t he lift the players around him? “I learned that there’s so much that goes into winning, so many guys take it for granted, especially elite college athletes who experience success in high school and they experience success at the college level,” Kizer said on a conference call from his home in Toledo. “They really don’t understand what all goes into that. “And looking at it from the opposite angle, I was able to understand that there’s a lot more to winning games than throwing a tight spiral. There’s leadership. There’s culture. There are so many things that go into that and an opportunity to learn from it as I move forward, be able to evaluate the situation that I’m in and try to be the best asset I possibly can to the team.” Kizer’s coach at Notre Dame, Brian Kelly, went on SiriusXM radio shortly
before the draft and said Kizer should have returned to South Bend for one more year. Kizer admitted he has work to do and wants to get going. Though he grew up in Toledo, he said he was not a Browns fan.
“I cannot wait to learn from Coach (Hue) Jackson,” Kizer said. “Even this last couple months, being able to spend a little bit of time with him, he was able to make a couple adjustments in my footwork and to my mentality that allows me to be a little more consistent and accurate. So I can’t wait to actually be with him when we can spend as much time is needed together to get myself to maximize the potential that I think I have.”
Kizer was the first quarterback drafted on the second day of the draft. Three went in the first round — Mitchell Trubisky to Chicago with the second pick, Patrick Mahomes to the Chiefs with the 10th pick and Deshaun Watson to Houston with the 12th pick.