The Browns have invested time and resources, and plenty of coaching, into DeShone Kizer this year. Which is good for him, since that amount of time is almost certainly going to be cut into by whichever quarterback they take at the top of the draft next year.
Browns coach Hue Jackson conceded the obvious Monday, while defending the progress of Kizer, this year’s second-round pick who has shown flashes of competence during an 0-12 campaign.
The Browns would pick first and seventh overall (via the Texans) in the 2018 NFL Draft if the season ended today (which they probably wouldn’t mind).
“It’s not a good problem because that means you’re losing, but it’s a problem that in this situation, you want to have,’' Jackson said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “We can’t have too many good quarterbacks right now on this football team.
“We have to and we’ve said it before, use resources at that position and go get the right guy that we feel comfortable with to pair them with some of the players we have here to come up with the best quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. That is just what you do.”
Of course, Jackson may or may not get to coach that fortunate soul, but it’s obvious they’ll go that direction. Or, I guess it ought to be obvious, though they did pass up chances to take Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson, so you never know.
That’ll leave Kizer on the scrap heap of memories that has been the Browns quarterback roster since they came back in 1999. But Jackson thinks the rookie has benefitted from this season.
Kizer’s lost all 11 of his starts, and is last in the league with a 58.1 passer rating. He’s completing 52.5 percent of his passes. But he’s upright, and that makes him the best of the lot for now.
“DeShone is still a growing young quarterback,’' Jackson said. “He’s working extremely hard. He’s trying his tail off to win for his football team, and sometimes in those moments, you kind of revert back. You’re going to take the good with the bad. He’s done some good things. He did some things that he has to continue to grow and learn from. I am not down on DeShone.
“I want DeShone to keep working at this thing. He knows he has my backing and my support, but he knows there are some areas he has to grow and grow up pretty fast. He’s taken that challenge.’'
The next guy will go through similar growing pains. And there will almost certainly be a next guy.