It really is a shame what’s happened to former Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer, because he’s an individual that you truly want to root for. The Toledo area native was listed consistently among the top three in an overwhelming majority of NFL mock drafts all season long.
Looking at all the mocks this past fall and winter, and you would see the name DeShone Kizer as #1 or #2 overall, certainly top five at least, in almost every single one. However, once we entered the offseason and thus the NFL draft evaluative period, Kizer’s stock dropped like shares of United Airlines.
It’s imperative to mention that NFL mock drafts are obviously not gospel, and mostly speculation. You can’t read that much into them, but the new overwhelming consensus is absolutely alarming.
In the NFL Network database, of their four mock drafts, he only appears in one, the mock belonging to Bucky Brooks, where he checks in at #30 Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s the same slot where we have Kizer projected, and it seems like a perfect fit as the Steelers are going to have to start preparing for life after Ben Roethlisberger. It’s a reality that they have put off for just way too long.
Walter Football has a database which currently has 233 mock drafts linked, and their table lists out the top five in each one. From October-January, you would see the name DeShone Kizer all over it. Today, you only really see him in second round mocks, or very late in the first. That’s a bummer because this is a very likable kid who has fine character.
San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch said Kizer “blew the doors off” his interview at the NFL Scouting Combine. That was certainly expected by anybody who has ever interviewed him.
That’s really saying something bold, and we must applaud him for that, especially in the world of big time mainstream sports. It’s an even more brave statement given the current backlash against intelligence, expertise and just even basic facts in our country right now. There is a very violent and serious strain of anti-intellectualism prevalent in American society right now.
With an overt war on basic truth currently underway, you want to root for the guy who stands up for doing his homework and being informed.
That’s the kind of guy you want quarterbacking your team too! Even if you hate or have ambivalent feelings for Notre Dame, you got to root for Kizer to make it, and hope that the somehow gets picked really high come April 26th.
I think he’s the prototype quarterback in the NFL. He’s at 6’5″, 235-, 240-pound quarterback,” said NFL Network draftnik Mayock.
“He’s got a big arm. He’s got a quick release. He’s athletic. He’s smart. He’s got enough athletic ability to move around the pocket. So I love his physical traits.”
It’s just a poor crop of quarterbacks in this year’s NFL Draft, even though plenty of teams are still in dire need at the position. If DeShone Kizer doesn’t go to Pittsburgh, Arizona or a homecoming with the Cleveland Browns are potential destinations.
However, it appears that Arizona or Cleveland could select Kizer by trading back and taking him later, not utilizing the #1, #12 or #13 picks on him.
“I have Watson 28, Trubisky 32, Kizer 33, just in terms of where they are on my top 50 list, how I sequenced them in,” NFLN’s Daniel Jeremiah.
“I’m all for taking a quarterback if you think he’s the 12th best player and you end up taking him at six (Jeremiah was speaking in response to a New York Jets related query), I can get on board with that.”
“But, man, taking a guy who is kind of a borderline late one, early two, vaulting him all the way up into the top 10 in this year’s draft, I don’t think it’s smart business.
“If you do want to take a quarterback, you’re set on one of those guys, I would be more inclined to trade back, if one of them falls in your lap, you take him; if not, there will still be other options available.
“I would not take a quarterback at the top of this group.”
Of course, no position in all of sports is “over-drafted” or sees teams making “a reach” more than quarterback. By that I mean QBs often go way higher than they “should” given player prospect ranking lists. It only makes sense given how it’s the most important position in all of American sports.
Perhaps DeShone Kizer will end up being the beneficiary of such a standard practice this draft. It would definitely be something worth rooting for.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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