Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer looked impressive during the team’s offseason activities heading into its summer break.
It’s a nice shot in the arm for a Browns franchise that has been without much to be hopeful for at quarterback over the past two decades.
And while it’s just practice, Kizer has apparently impressed the Browns’ brass enough to narrow the gap between himself and second-year player Cody Kessler for the starting quarterback job.
“Browns rookie DeShone Kizer has considerably narrowed the gap on Cody Kessler in the quarterback competition and will press him hard for the starting job in training camp,” Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported on Tuesday.
One of the primary reasons Kizer fell to the second round of April’s draft was due to the fact that teams viewed him as raw coming out of Notre Dame.
For a Browns team that won one game last season, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If he can grow under center out of the gate, it will give the squad something to build with under center. Cleveland has not been able to say that for the better part of the past two decades.
At the very least, this will be one of the most-interesting training camp battles later in the summer. Remember, veteran acquisition Brock Osweiler is firmly alive as a potential starter. That could make this a three-way race heading into the preseason.