DeShone Kizer Already Making Case for Franchise QB Status in 2017 NFL Draft

This entire offseason, Deshaun Watson of Clemson, who took the Tigers down to the wire against Alabama in the College Football Playoff last year, was the crown jewel for any fanbase looking to address their quarterback position in the 2017 draft.

After one week of play, though, a new challenger, DeShone Kizer of Notre Dame, has emerged as a potential contender for that “franchise quarterback” label.

The NFL draft is the mechanism that leads to long-term success in the NFL. You can say what you want about how on the surface the event seems haphazard in terms of efficiency, but there’s no doubt that the franchises who win championships in the league do so because of their talent relative to the salary cap.

The draft provides low-cost contracts for teams looking to add potentially rare talent from the college ranks, rather than addressing needs through free-agency classes that typically feature mid-level players looking to cash out.

In terms of the quarterback position, the draft couldn’t be more important. It holds the top 14 contracts in the league based on average salary, per Spotrac. It also has a nearly $20 million franchise tag number, over $5 million more than any other position, according to CBS Sports.

Now, Kizer is only a 20-year-old redshirt sophomore, but it’s not odd to see players, especially quarterbacks, declare early for the draft after just two-and-a-half years from their high school graduation. Last year’s first overall pick, Jared Goff of California, did just that, while everyone and their mother expects the same from Watson.

In recent years, there has even been a trend of redshirt sophomores declaring at the position, as both Jameis Winston of Florida State and Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M went pro after just their second seasons of live action at the college level.

On paper, a Week 1 loss to a Big 12 team that went 5-7 in 2015 doesn’t seem like a game that would reveal “the next big thing” like Manziel’s historical performance against Alabama, but Kizer’s effort in Notre Dame’s double-overtime loss to the University of Texas on Sunday had as much impact on the 2017 draft as any in the nation this week.

One reason why Kizer’s six-touchdown game against the Longhorns may have come as a surprise to casual draftniks is the fact that Kizer didn’t officially win the Fighting Irish’s starting job this spring. Kizer inherited the team last season after Malik Zaire, now a redshirt junior, broke his ankle in the second game of the season, and after Everett Golson, who took Notre Dame to a national championship game as a freshman, transferred to Florida State.

Zaire had yet to lose the job on the field since Kizer took over, and he’s an upperclassman, so it’s no surprise that head coach Brian Kelly split time between the two throughout camp, leading to little buzz for Kizer in draft circles heading into Week 1. It’s just hard to hitch your wagon to a horse who may not even be in the race.

Zaire only threw five passes, completing two, and ran the ball three times, for zero net yards, against Texas. According to Sporting News (h/t Yahoo Sports), Kelly still is shy about calling Kizer the starter in public, but after looking at the redshirt sophomore’s playing time and success relative to his competitor, the writing is on the wall.

Asked about the quarterback situation — with DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire — Kelly said, “We still have two very good quarterbacks.”

Pressed further on whether he planned to keep the “OR” between the two on the depth chart, Kelly said: “We plan on having two really good quarterbacks the rest of the year. I haven’t sat down and talked with either one of them, so before we do that we don’t have any plans to make any decisions.”

Kelly then finally relented and said, “Yeah, we will make that decision this week.”

Whether Kelly likes it or not, despite the class politics that may be in play, he has a potential first-round quarterback.

The first question that will come up in Kizer’s ascension to the top of draft boards will be “Why didn’t he win the job outright?” The truth is that Kizer isn’t as talented a …

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