Buying: DeShone Kizer will see draft-day tumble
Kizer could be this year’s Geno Smith, though we expect him to be better in the long run than the former West Virginia product has been. It’s likely he’ll experience a similar draft-day slide.
First off, Kizer just didn’t have a good season in 2016 for Notre Dame. He completed under 59 percent of his passes, made late-game mistakes and led a team that went 4-8.
Then he was the least impressive top quarterback at the combine, coming out of it as one of the biggest losers from the extended weekend in Indianapolis. Not surprisingly, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports is reporting Kizer could slip out of the first round entirely, “with execs not sold on his attitude and maturity.”
On top of all that, his college coach Brian Kelly made comments indicating Kizer isn’t ready for the NFL yet and should have stayed in school — comments the quarterback actually agreed with a week later.
Kudos to Kizer for being honest with himself about all this. But it’s looking more and more like the quarterback will end up sliding pretty significantly come draft day.