The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Browns should think about trade for Kizer
One thing the Browns have proven year after year is the draft rarely goes the way the media expect it to. I expect this year to follow suit.
The notion the Browns will get defensive end Myles Garrett of Texas A&M with the first pick and quarterback Mitchell Trubisky of Mentor High School and North Carolina with the 12th pick would be ideal. But for the sake of lively debate, let’s imagine they pass on Trubisky and take, say, Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey instead.
Picking McCaffrey makes sense. The Browns gave Isaiah Crowell, their leading rusher each of the past three years, a secondround tender of $2.81 million in February. The window for him to sign an offer sheet with another team expired on April 20. He could sign the tender and become an unrestricted free agent next winter. Crowell is not participating in the Browns’ offseason program in Berea.
The Browns could wait until they make the first pick in the second round and draft DeShone Kizer of Notre Dame to fill the quarterback void. Since none of the top quarterbacks is going to be ready to start immediately, why not wait for the one who needs the most work but also might have the highest ceiling?
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly earlier in April told SiriusXM radio Kizer should have returned to Notre Dame in 2017 instead of turning pro as a redshirt sophomore.
“He should still be in college,” Kelly said. “He needs more time to grow in so many areas, not just on the field but off the field.”
But keep reading, because Kelly also rated Kizer best among the group that includes Deshaun Watson of Clemson and Patrick Mahomes of Texas Tech as well as Trubisky.
“He’s got a strong arm,” Kelly said. “Physically, he’s gifted. He’s got all those tools that you’re looking for at the quarterback position.”
Kizer, in an interview with USA Today, said he prepares like Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and has the body of Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. At 6-foot-4, 233 pounds, he is the biggest among the quarterbacks considered the best in this draft class.
“No one else can do what I can do,” Kizer said. “…Why can’t I be the greatest? The only thing stopping me is me. That’s what’s driving me now.
“Name a college quarterback who goes into the game-plan meetings on Monday and throws his notes at the coaches,” Kizer said. “No one else game-plans the way I do. No one else prepares the way I do. No one else knows football the way I do. No one else is as big as I am. No one else is as powerful a runner as I am. Pat Mahomes might throw the ball 80 yards and I can only throw the ball 72, but I guarantee he can’t throw an out route the way I can.”
History teaches us every year teams desperate for a quarterback reach for one. The Browns might not be able to wait for the 33rd pick to get Kizer.
The Giants at 23, the Texans at 25, the Chiefs at 27 and the Saints at 32 could be eying Kizer. So could the Redskins at 17 as they prepare for life after Kirk Cousins if he leaves in free agency next winter.
We could be looking at the Browns trading up scenarios all wrong; instead of trading up to five for Trubisky, maybe they are secretly plotting to trade back into the upper 20s of the first round so they could haul away Garrett, a defensive back or running back and Kizer on the first day of the draft.
Keep an eye on…
Javancy Jones, outside linebacker.
Jones won’t get drafted until the third day, and even then might last to the seventh round or be signed as a rookie free agent. But the 6-foot-2, 245-pounder from Jackson State caught the eye of scouts in the East-West Shrine Game as an edge rusher.
Jones made 82 tackles in 2016 with 19.5 tackles for loss and four sacks playing at the FCS school in the SWAC.
“Jones has good size and physicality and will get home run grades for leadership and character. But making a roster out of camp could be difficult,” Lance Zierlein wrote in the scouting report for NFL.com. “He’s not a naturally agile, flexible athlete to begin with and he may be forced to learn a new position (inside linebacker) on the next level.”
This seems to be a player Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams might enjoy getting on the practice fields in Berea.
All-name team
Following is my allname team selected from prospects eligible for the 2017 draft:
Taco Charlton – defensive end, Michigan: When do we eat?
Chidobe Awuzie – cornerback, Colorado: A Star Wars character.
Obi Melifonwu – strong safety, Connecticut: Star Wars, too, for sure.
Adoree Jackson – cornerback, Southern Cal: You have to love the name Adoree.
Duke Riley – outside linebacker, LSU: Definitely a linebacker’s name.
Fabian Moreau – cornerback, UCLA: He has a career waiting in Hollywood with that name.
JuJu Smith-Schuster – wide receiver, Southern Cal: I Googled it. JuJu is a dance.
Nico Siragusa – guard, San Diego State: It just sounds like a name from the 1950s NFL.
Tanoh Kpassagnon – defensive end, Villanova: Or maybe a Finnish hockey goalie.
Fish Smithson – free safety, Kansas: I’m sure he never got teased as a child.
Read the warning label
The Browns will be picking first for the first time since 2000 when they selected Courtney Brown. Brown was a defensive end from Penn State, not heralded quite as much as Myles Garrett this year, but close.
I remember walking off the practice field in training camp with Chris Palmer, the first head coach of the expansion era, on an August day in 2000.
“You know,” he said. “More defensive ends picked first fail than quarterbacks picked first.”
I don’t know what statistical data Palmer used to reach that conclusion, but Brown played five seasons for the Browns and one for the Broncos before retiring after an undistinguished career.
Brown started and played in 47 of 80 games with the Browns. He missed 33 with injuries and totaled 17 sacks. He played in 14 games with the Broncos in 2005 and had two sacks.
I didn’t know that
… Until I read my Snapple bottle cap
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Reach Schudel at JSchudel@ News-Herald.com. On Twitter: @jsproinsider