Notre Dame Football: DeShone Kizer Sees Advantages In Losing

DeShone Kizer doesn’t think his biggest asset heading into the 2017 NFL Draft is his 6-foot-4, 235 pound build, his powerful arm or his ability to keep the play alive with his feet.

The former Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback says his advantage over the other draft hopefuls at his position is he knows what it’s like to lose.

“The biggest question right now is the 4-8 factor. If you’re supposed to be this elite guy and you’re going to declare early, how do you go 4-8 last season? I would say that’s probably my biggest advantage, in terms of comparing me to other quarterbacks in this draft — is that I do have the experience of losing,” said Kizer on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football. “If you’re going to take a guy in the first round and you’re going to call him a franchise guy, you have to be able to go into a situation that isn’t necessarily the best for you.

“So to be able to experience 4-8 and also experience a 10-win season and a Fiesta Bowl trip, I’m able to compare the two seasons and determine the different things that go into winning — the leadership things, the culture things. How do I approach my teammates? Comparing those two seasons where you have Will Fuller and Ronnie Stanley on one team and you have K.J. Stepherson, a true freshman playing receiver, on another. Being able to determine what it takes to be a winning quarterback, I think, is my biggest asset going into whatever situation I’m going into.”

Kizer’s comments are part of a larger 5 minute, 20 second interview which he handled with great aplomb. (See video below) Yet, I’m going to focus on this single argument because it’s not sending the message I believe Kizer thinks it’s sending.

Because Kizer went 8-3 and then 4-8 as a starter, he’s tacitly acknowledging that his leadership style contributed to the team’s losing. NFL personnel are weighing whether to guarantee this 21-year-old millions of dollars. They cannot be reassured by an athlete who admits he learned what it takes to win — and then didn’t execute that.

Furthermore, Kizer is implying he cannot win without the right personnel — which is exactly what bad teams lack. The executive of a perpetually losing franchise wants to hear how you can help his team win with the personnel he already has (or can reasonably acquire). He doesn’t care for blaming other players’ inexperience as a reason you cannot lead his team to wins.

I don’t blame Kizer for trying to spin Notre Dame’s disastrous season into something positive for himself. To paraphrase Malik Zaire, Kizer is holding “chicken crap” and he’s trying to transform it into “chicken salad.”

I agreed with his decision to enter the NFL Draft. It was not in his best interests to attend the university for another year and try to improve on his 12-11 record. There’s potentially a much stronger quarterback draft class next year and coach Brian Kelly has already demonstrated a willingness to bench him when he struggles. Kizer simply could not take the chance that Kelly, needing to win now, would bench him in favor of Brandon Wimbush and torpedo Kizer’s draft stock.

My hope for Kizer this weekend has changed. I initially wanted him to get paid first round money and avoid the Cleveland Browns.

Now I want him to find the right fit.

The Arizona Cardinals would be foolish to draft Kizer at No. 13 — the Irish quarterback’s value is no longer that high. They have a second pick at No. 45. Kizer could still be available, depending on how the first round goes, or the Cardinals could trade up. The Cardinals have 37-year-old quarterback Carson Palmer signed to a guaranteed deal through 2018, so they’ll be able to give their QB of the future some time with a great mentor.

The Cardinals are 18 months removed from a NFC championship game appearance. Arizona would be a good fit.

I cannot imagine Kizer will fall farther than No. 59. Barring trades, that will give the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, Chicago Bears, Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers two cracks at choosing a future signal caller. The Cleveland Browns will have four chances by the mid-second round.

I found 28 mock drafts published within the last 24 hours. Eighteen say Kizer won’t go in the first round. As always, the complete list of 252 mock drafts (!) is here.

Here’s where the mock draft analysts think the quarterbacks will be selected.

@andrewwinn

OH, AND THIS HAPPENED

AND, FINALLY, SOME WONDERFUL NEWS