Run only QBs aren't valuable unless you're in a Nebraska triple-option offense.
Golson and Kizer had big arms but couldn't win or struggled as leaders.
The man performed very well in 2016, and if we had any semblance of a defense, that should have easily been a 10+ win season.
I'd argue that he stepped his game up even more that year, since we lost one of our best receivers (Torii Hunter Jr), and that he was forced to share time with Malik Zaire. Also, going from Will Fuller as your WR1, to Equanimeous St. Brown was a significant drop. Don't get me wrong, St. Brown still had a fine year, coming close to 1000 yards, but as a true sophomore, he had some room for improvement. I still wonder how much better that 2017 season would have been, had Kizer stayed, since St. Brown wouldn't have had his neck almost broken several times.
With regards to his terrible pro career...
I can't fault Deshone Kizer for getting drafted by a truly putrid Cleveland Browns team. That franchise has been a graveyard for many a promising quarterback. Brady Quinn had a similar experience there, that by the time he was starting, they had already traded away their best players.
Frankly, I'm surprised that Baker Mayfield managed to put up some decent numbers during his time with that franchise.
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I truly wonder what Kizer might have become had he stayed in college one more year. If anyone screamed "stay in college," it was Kizer.
We don't know what he might have become if he had one more year in college. Clearly the pros say something in his talent for him to stick along as long as he did. He isn't the only pro qb to be wrecked by playing too early on an awful team with bad coaching.
Talented kid who's main interests were always elsewhere.
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There are good players who play for mediocre teams and mediocre coaches. There are also unimpressive players who play for great teams and great coaches and are labeled "great" by virtue of association. Some of them even make it into halls of fame. Leaving aside Book, I'd take him over the guys who followed him at ND
great potential but never put it together. I wanted him to succeed. He had all of what you want to root for, but he was a turnover machine and couldn't win.
He was mentioned as a Heisman contender before that robbery.
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