Cleveland Browns: DeShone Kizer Draws Surprising Comparison
By Erik Lambert
Was DeShone Kizer the guy all along that the Cleveland Browns had in mind for their future at quarterback? They’ll say yes. Rumors say otherwise.
Indications are that owner Jimmy Haslam had his heart set on Mitch Trubisky, the Cleveland native. Head coach Hue Jackson liked Patrick Mahomes. So it’s only fitting that the Browns ended up with neither. In the end it was Kizer who they secured in the 2nd round. To their credit many draft experts believe the Notre Dame standout will be the best to come out of this class. At least that’s the hope given his array of physical skills.
It’s these skills that Jackson is so impressed with. So much in fact that he tentatively made a comparison between Kizer and another certain AFC North quarterback during a recent radio interview.
"“I don’t know that I’ve coached a guy with this kind of skill set,” Jackson said Thursday on team’s in-house radio show, Cleveland Browns Daily on WKNR 850 AM. “But he’s a big powerful man, so I know he’s going to get compared to another guy on another team in our division.“I’m not going to talk about [Roethlisberger] because he’s that big and he has that kind of arm. He’s very mobile. So again, I don’t like to compare players and I know people will, but he’s got to come in and do what he can do and be the best version of him and that’s what we’re going to allow him to do.”"
In terms of the big body, mobility and strong arm? Yeah the comparison makes sense but it should pretty much stop there. Roethlisberger had a reputation coming out of college for late-game heroics. He also had a way better record at Miami of Ohio than Kizer did at Notre Dame. People aren’t sure Kizer can reach that level of mental focus and discipline to succeed in the NFL. It’s part of the reason he fell out of the 1st round.
Even his former head coach Brian Kelly warned he should’ve stayed in college. Cleveland may trust they can get him on the right track, but their history says otherwise. Pressure undoubtedly will be on Jackson to prove this comparison true.