One player who seems to have his stock on a constant rise is Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer, now projected to be a first round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, with the New York Giants, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers showing serious interest in him.
Kizer, 21, is also on the radar of the Arizona Cardinals, although picking at #13 might be a bit early for him. He’s mostly projected to be a late first round pick, but obviously these things change depending on need and how the draft develops in general, be it trades or previous picks changing the draft board for teams looking into him.
The Giants want a backup to Eli Manning they feel can take over in a few years, and Kizer might fit that bill. Both the Browns and the Jets have no idea what they want, and simply seem to be throwing hooks everywhere, hoping to come up with a good quarterback that ends up becoming a part of a successful program, instead of another name in a long list of failures. The Chargers are in the same category as the Giants, with Philip Rivers who has been playing the same time as Manning, and at some point in the near future will step down (or forced to step down) as starting quarterback.
Kizer is impressing a lot of scouts with his size and power. He has a lot of work to do on timing (tends to hold on to the ball too much) and his decision making, but when it comes to checking boxes of physical abilities, be it the type of throws he can make, his ability to get the ball down the field, not being afraid of tight windows and his movement in the pocket, Kizer has been impressive throughout his workouts and what he showed during his two years as a starter for Notre Dame.
Kizer wasn’t supposed to take over in 2015, but Malik Zaire going down with injury early landed him the job. It looked great in 2015 with a strong offensive line and plenty of offensive weapons, but 2016 was a bad year for the Fighting Irish after losing a lot of offensive talent. Notre Dame finished just 4-8, although Kizer had a good season, throwing for 26 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, while rushing for 8 touchdowns. Redshirted in 2014, he left South Bend after two seasons.