Browns head of football operations Sashi Brown insisted Friday he would be comfortable entering the 2017 season without adding another quarterback and he’d be surprised if the franchise acquired one this offseason.
Brown has final say on all roster decisions, so unless he surprises himself, the Browns are expected to move forward with Cody Kessler, Brock Osweiler, rookie second-round draft pick DeShone Kizer and Kevin Hogan at quarterback instead of signing a free agent like Colin Kaepernick or Ryan Fitzpatrick or trading for another veteran.
Brown made the comments during a radio interview on ESPN 850 WKNR when he was asked whether he could see a transaction involving a quarterback occurring before training camp in July.
“That would surprise me,” Brown said on The Really Big Show. “I’ll never say never, and we’re always out there looking for what’s available to us. But very few transactions happen around the league, maybe one or two a year, that would affect the quarterback position, particularly a starting-caliber quarterback. So I would anticipate and feel really comfortable about the four guys we have going into the season.
“We like and saw some real glimpses from Cody that were positive last year. Want to see him continue to develop. He’s worked his tail off all offseason and come back and looked good in the start of phase two [of the offseason workout program]. Kevin Hogan the same thing, and Brock we’re just getting a chance to know, but obviously people are more familiar with him and have seen him on the field in some big games and make some big plays. He didn’t have the season he wanted to last year but we’ll surround him and hopefully he can get on a trajectory that’s positive.
“We’re all excited about bringing DeShone in, an Ohio boy, Toledo kid who’s going to slide over a 50-minute drive to Berea here and get to work, but bring the great physical tool kit, and then we’ll work on some of the things that I think he wants to develop based on his two years starting at Notre Dame and excited to see him get in the mix, too. Very bright young man who’s got a bright future ahead if he can seize the opportunity and fix some of the things I think he wants to work on.”
The Browns hope Kizer can become their quarterback of the future. If he doesn’t convince them he can, they could turn to a highly touted 2018 quarterback draft class. They have two picks in the first round and three in the second round next year.
“We haven’t settled the quarterback position here, and we hope that we develop the guys here and give them every shot to do that,” Brown said. “And if we don’t, we’re going to stay aggressive and hungry on it.”
On Thursday, Brown said on ESPN’s Mike and Mike he envisions coach Hue Jackson holding an “open competition” in training camp for the starting quarterback job.
Although Kessler is considered the front-runner to start the Sept. 10 regular-season opener against the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers, Brown and coach Hue Jackson have made it clear Kizer will also receive a chance to win the job.
Jackson praised Kizer, who the Browns chose 52nd overall last week, during a radio interview Thursday on Cleveland Browns Daily and said he expects the 6-foot-4¼, 233-pound prospect to draw comparisons to Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger because of his build and impressive arm strength.
“I don’t know that I’ve coached a guy with this kind of skill set,” Jackson. “But he’s a big, powerful man, so I know he’s going to get compared to another guy on another team in our division I’m not going to talk about.
“[Kizer is] that big and he has that kind of arm, and he is very mobile. So again, I don’t like to compare players and I know people will, but he’s got to come in and do what he can do and be the best version of him, and that’s what we’re going to allow him to do.”
Still, Kizer and the Browns have admitted he needs a lot of work. Footwork and mechanics that led to his problems with accuracy at Notre Dame must be corrected.
Kessler went 0-8 last season as a rookie. Osweiler was a free-agency bust last year with the Houston Texans. Hogan attempted 26 passes last season as a rookie but hasn’t started.
So unless Kizer hits the ground running or one of those veterans improves dramatically, it’ll be easy to predict another rough year for a team that went 1-15 last season.
Brown, however, said the Browns are determined to win this year.
“There’s a lot of hype around the draft, but we’ve got to get to winning and we’ve got to get to winning soon,” Brown said. “Sure, we’re glad to have executed [in the draft]. We are happy with what we could’ve done, but we need all of this to translate so the fans can be celebrating wins in the fall, and that’s our central goal and everybody here knows that.
“[Our goal is to] win the AFC North, get into the playoffs and see what happens from there. But we do understand where our roster is but, no, our expectations are high. And the expectation is to win and win now, and I think when you buy into, ‘We’re going to take a year off,’ you’re adopting a losing mentality, and we’re not going to do that here.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.