It’s only Day 1 of Cleveland Browns training camp, and rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer is already ahead of schedule.
Hue Jackson was asked if Kizer is progressing faster than anyone expected, and he confirmed all the reports we’ve been hearing about recently.
“Yes, he is,” Jackson said, according to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com. “He’s understanding the offense. I could take you back to his days at OTAs – he struggled calling the plays. The words were a lot simpler. The language was a different. I did not see as much of that today. That is improvement. Obviously, he made some good throws and did not turn the ball over. Those things are good. Again, it’s just one day. We are not going to make decisions on guys in one day. We have a lot of work to do.”
Kizer is still third behind Cody Kessler and Brock Osweiler on the depth chart. But it appears that Kizer’s advancement could have him taking more of Kessler’s reps right out of the gate.
Cabot speculates that Kizer, who is already splitting first-team reps with Kessler, could soon take over the job.
“If Kizer continues at this clip, he’ll soon be taking most of the first-team reps,” she wrote, while speculating the split with Kessler now means the Browns are preparing him to “play sooner than later.”
It’s still early, but Kizer seems to be ahead of the curve. The ultimate goal, and one that has been for years, is for the Browns to find a trusted signal caller that can lead the team out of the basement in the AFC North.
Overall, Cleveland got a bargain with Kizer after he slipped to the second round in April. He might just slip into that starting role sooner than everyone anticipated by the tone of this report.