According to Browns head coach Hue Jackson, he will be spending a lot – a whole lot – of time with rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer during the OTA practices over the month or so.
Well, duh!
That’s hardly news. And it’s hardly a surprise.
The only shock would be if Jackson wasn’t going to hone in on Kizer.
This just in, folks: Jackson was hired in January 2016 to, of course, turn the Browns around, but more immediately to find their franchise quarterback. It’s something – someone — the Browns have been looking for, without success, since the expansion era began way back in 1999.
For the team isn’t going to get better on a consistent basis until a proficient quarterback is identified. Quarterback is, by far, the most important position in team sports. If team has one, then it has a chance. And if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. It’s no more complicated than that.
Jackson got the job because he has the reputation of being an expert on quarterbacks. “The quarterback whisperer,” they call him.
If your roof leaks, then you call a roofer. The Browns called Hue.
And now he needs to fix the problem.
Indeed, if Jackson finds his quarterback, then the Browns will almost certainly become winners and he will have job security. Heck, more than that, he may get canonized, or there could be a statue built of him.
Yeah, it’s that big of a deal in football-crazy Cleveland.
But if he isn’t any more successful than his predecessors, then the Browns will stay mired in the muck and Jackson will eventually get fired, taking all of his assistants and perhaps even the key members of the front office with him. That’s the way this business works.
So if you’re the quarterback repairman and your professional livelihood depends on you finding the guy, then it should come as absolutely no surprise that you would spend most of the time in the spring practices with the player who was taken in the second round of the NFL Draft. When a team selects a player that high, it is serious about giving him all the chances in the world to win the job at some point.
And for Kizer to be able to seize upon those opportunities and flourish, he will have to be ready. Jackson is set to make sure that his prized pupil is ready.
