The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
QB coach aims to fix Kizer’s mechanics
David Lee began coaching quarterbacks 22 years before DeShone Kizer was born, so it stands to reason the Browns’ rookie can get a whole lot better without even picking up a football if he just listens to him.
And Kizer, 21, is listening. Do not wonder about that.
The same goes for Cody Kessler and Brock Osweiler.
A three-day minicamp ended for the Browns on June 15, and, following tradition, the position coaches were made available to the media. Lee, in his first year with the Browns, broke down the mechanics of his pupils minutely. Changing the way a player at the pro level throws a football is no small task.
“DeShone was a longstrider, Brock was a longstrider,” Lee said. “It’s been a lot of work and it’s still not there yet. There’s been a lot of improvement on DeShone. Brock knows that when we start moving around and the bullets start flying, his legs get long again like daddy longlegs and that’s when he gets in trouble and the ball sails. You saw it happen out here (in practice) today.
“It comes out of his hand too high because of his long stride and his body doesn’t catch up. Their brain says, ‘Let it go,’ but their body hasn’t caught up with their front foot. That’s a lot of work to get a guy to master this footwork that we’re coaching but he’s trying really, really hard.”
The Browns go into the six-week break before the start of training camp without a starting quarterback. Kessler has the most experience in the Browns’ offense, but he was 0-8 as a starter last season. Kizer has the potential to start, but he says he isn’t ready and Lee agrees.
“He has big-play ability,” Lee said. “That’s what that dude’s going to give this football team if he ever becomes the starter one day and we don’t know that yet, Hue Jackson watches Brock Osweiler throw during minicamp at the Browns’ training facility June 13 in Berea.
but the way his ball moves and jumps off his hand and gets to the receiver in a hurry, and in this league, separation (by the receiver) is so important.
“That ball can get there faster if there’s a whole lot less time to break on it. And that’s what I see in him is a big, strong, guy which is defined in this division by Ben (Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger) and by (Ravens quarterback) Joe Flacco and this kid’s in that mold. But when I look out there and I see him miss a protection call and he gets hit upside the head, I know he’s not ready. That doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, you can’t put him out there and endanger the team as well as get him killed.”
Osweiler sticks out in
this quarterback competition. At 6-foot-8, he looks like a giraffe in an orange helmet.
Osweiler is on the Browns’ roster because he failed so miserably in Houston last year. The Texans were happy to give the Browns a 2018 secondround pick and Osweiler for a 2017 fourth-round pick just to wash their hands of him. But Osweiler says he is being coached better here than he was with the Texans.
“I am so excited to be a Cleveland Brown and I can’t wait to get this season started,” Osweiler said. “The best part is I’m getting coached hard on my fundamentals. And I believe firmly that when your fundamentals and your feet are right as a quarterback,
you’re going to make great decisions and you’re going to throw accurate footballs.
“I think that’s something that slid last season. I’m not going to go into great detail on that, but they did. My fundamentals slid. At the same time knowing that your coach believes in you gives you a lot of confidence.”
Reports of an alleged altercation between Osweiler and Texans coach Bill O’Brien at halftime of Houston’s final game of the 2016 season surfaced after Osweiler was traded to the Browns. Since he has been in Berea, though, head coach Hue Jackson and now Lee have gone out of their way to say what a great guy and a great teammate Osweiler has been.
“I’m speaking from my heart,” Lee said. “He has been great. His questions are great. He’s got a lot of questions, but ought to have. He knows how to play. I can’t speak for where he’s been or anything else. He looks like a guy who’s played before. He’s great at the line of scrimmage. He’s great in the huddle, I mean calming effect. Is he the quarterback? We don’t have one yet, but he’s in the mix for sure.”
Osweiler was 5-2 as a starter with the Broncos in 2015 and 8-6 as a starter with the Texans last year.