The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Kizer and Trubisky to collide on learning curve
Going from being a college star one year to starting as a rookie quarterback the next can be a humbling experience.
DeShone Kizer for the Browns and Mitchell Trubisky for the Bears will duel on Christmas Eve in Chicago. It has a trying season for both players.
The best quarterbacks in a college class almost always end up on a bad football team. So it is with Trubisky, the Mentor High School graduate, and so it is with Kizer. Both could have stayed in college another year — Trubisky at North Carolina and Kizer at Notre Dame — but both decided to turn pro in 2017 in a draft not as loaded at quarterback as the 2018 draft is projected to be.
The Bears traded up from third to second so they could draft Trubisky, making him the first quarterback taken this year. Trubisky was named the starter five games into the season. He is 3-7.
Kizer wasn’t taken by the Browns until the 52nd pick, but he falls into the “highly rated quarterback to a bad team” category because the Browns had the first overall pick after finishing 1-15 in 2016.
Kizer and Trubisky have had their moments when it seems they’ve made strides, and then a week later a setback to remind them they have much to learn. Kizer definitely has had more downs than ups with 19 interceptions and six lost fumbles. Six of the interceptions were thrown inside the opponent’s 20-yard-line.
Trubisky had one of those over-the-hump games on Dec. 10 when he completed 25 of 32 passes for 271 yards and a touchdown in a 33-7 romp over the Bengals. It was the best game of his young career to that point.
Six days later Trubisky passed for 314 yards but also threw three interceptions — all in the second half — in a 20-10 loss to the Bears.
“Lack of rhythm on offense, penalties,” Trubisky told reporters after the setback. “We have to eliminate penalties, and then me taking care of the football. So we just need to do better at those things. Take care of the ball in red zone, be better on third down, obviously, and just execute better on offense all the way around.”
We hear the same remarks from Kizer after every Browns loss, though, in truth, Kizer walks into the media room looking glummer and more defeated each week. He had a right to feel that way after what Coach Hue Jackson said after the 27-10 loss to the Ravens on Dec. 17.
Kizer threw two more interceptions. He lost his sixth fumble on a strip sack in the end zone. The Ravens recovered the ball for a touchdown. Kizer’s second interception of the day was thrown from the Ravens 6 and intercepted in the end zone in the fourth quarter. The Browns were already down, 27-10.
“He has some work to do,” Jackson said. “I think that’s a fair question (to ask) if he’ll ever get it. I think he will, but he has to keep working. Those are the things that he has to really fight against.
“That (red zone) is one of the areas of the field where there’ve been some struggles, but there has also been some improvement. You want to keep it going that way. Today we took a step back.”
Jackson has named Kizer the starter against the Bears. His only other choices are Kevin Hogan or third-stringer Cody Kessler. It would be a shock if he doesn’t stick with Kizer because the other two don’t belong in the NFL.
The question that won’t be answered on Christmas Eve in Chicago is, “What will the two rookies learn from this trying season so they are better in 2018?”
Both have a dearth of talent around them, which is reflective of being drafted by a bad team. Both will go into the offseason uncertain who will be coaching them next season.
Both also can walk from 2017 knowing this:
Troy Aikman was 0-11 with nine touchdown passes and 18 interceptions as a rookie with the Cowboys in 1989.
Peyton Manning was 3-13 with 26 touchdown passes and 28 interceptions in 1998.
The careers of Aikman and Manning obviously ended much better than they began. Aikman is in the Hall of Fame, and Manning will be as soon as his five years after retirement time waiting period ends in three years.
The stories of Kizer and Trubisky are far from over.