The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Pressure is on Kizer to outperform Wentz, Watson
Mike Mayock has been wrong before. The Browns have to hope the NFL Network analyst is wrong again.
The Browns passed on Mayock’s top-rated quarterback in each of the last two drafts — Carson Wentz in 2016 and Deshaun Watson last month.
The Eagles traded five picks to the Browns (the Browns threw in a 2017 fourth-round pick) because they were so enamored with Wentz.
Houston felt the same way about Watson. The Texans traded the Browns pick 25 in 2017 and their first-round pick next year for pick 12 this year to take Watson.
The Browns got their quarterback, DeShone Kizer of Notre Dame, with the 52nd pick. Kizer was Mayock’s toprated quarterback at the beginning of the draft process but ended up fourth behind Watson, Mitchell Trubisky and Patrick Mahomes.
“The only thing I did was take DeShone Kizer and move him from one to four,” Mayock said in an NFL Network predraft interview. “I’ve said all along Deshaun Watson is the kid I really want to like. The reason I want to like him is when the lights are brightest, when it’s most important, he plays his best football.”
Mayock is sticking by his original premise that Kizer can be the best of the group in the end.
“From my perspective, Kizer still has the biggest ceiling of any quarterback in this draft,” Mayock said. “He’s the prototypical NFL quarterback, but he’s not ready to play. I think he’s a year or two away from stepping on an NFL field.”
Mayock is the same guy who said quarterback Blaine Gabbert should have been the first player picked in 2011. He said in 2012 that Trent Richardson would be the next Adrian Peterson,
and in 2014 he said Johnny Manziel was a top-10 pick.
All three were colossal failures.
Mayock’s rankings aside, Kizer’s success will always be measured by what Wentz and Watson do.
Wentz and Watson were right in front of Brown like ripe juicy fruit on low-hanging branches.
Minicamp for Browns rookies begins May 11 when they report to Berea. May 12 marks the first time they’ll be on the field with their new team.
The clock on Kizer will start ticking the first time he steps into a throw.
“I don’t know that I’ve coached a guy with this kind of skill set,” Browns coach Hue Jackson said recently during a radio interview on WKNR-AM 850. “We’ve got to coach him from the ground up, but we’re working with a guy that’s very talented.
“This is a guy who has a skill set that’s going to allow us to push and prod and get him to where he needs to be. I don’t think we’re going to rush to stick him out there, but, at the same time, I’m not going to stop him from being out there if he demonstrates those skill sets very quickly.”
Acquiring Houston’s firstround pick next year — predictably a late pick because they were slotted 25th this year and will have defensive end J.J. Watt back for 2017 — is a plus for the Browns only if Kizer succeeds.
He doesn’t have to be an instant success, but all these analytics we hear about in Berea won’t mean much if Wentz and Watson are in the playoffs in two years and the Browns are still searching for their quarterback.