Browns take long-awaited shot at QB by drafting DeShone Kizer

After DeShone Kizer sat through the entire first round of the draft in Philadelphia Thursday night without hearing his name called, he decided to return home to Toledo, Ohio rather than return for another night in the green room.

He didn’t know it at the time, but that flight home was bringing him closer to his future NFL team.

The Cleveland Browns selected Kizer, the former Notre Dame quarterback, in the second round with the No. 52.

“I’m only about two hours away. If I yelled loud enough off of this balcony, I am sure you guys could hear me,” Kizer told reporters in Cleveland Friday night.

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The quarterback-needy Browns waited until the second round to take Kizer – having passed on Mitchell Trubisky at No. 1 and traded back at No. 12, where the Houston Texans took Deshaun Watson. Now Kizer joins veteran Brock Osweiler, who arrived via a salary dump trade from Houston in March, and 2016 draft pick Cody Kessler to compete for the Browns’ starting job.

Finding a starting quarterback has proven evasive for the Browns, who have started 26 different players at the position since the team returned to Cleveland in 1999. Six different players took snaps at quarterback last season.

“I just can’t wait to get into that facility and start to learn and to pick up all of the different things that I need to pick up in order to try to contribute to the team as much as I possibly can,” Kizer said. “There is a lot of room to go ahead and grow into the NFL and I can’t wait to do that.”

Kizer said he knows he must work on improving his accuracy, after completing just 58.7% of his throws last year Notre Dame. He said he’s already been working on making technical adjustments that he believes will help make him a more accurate passer, and said he picked up some tips in a private workout with Browns head coach Hue Jackson during the pre-draft process.

“I am very confident that once I get into their system and I am able to be in their facility with them that those improvements will continue and I will be able to become a much more accurate thrower,” Kizer said.

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