When I watched him last year I saw a college quarterback not a NFL caliber quarterback.
So far this year I have seen Watson, Chad Kelly, and Kizer play.
Still will watch a ton more but so far nobody jumps out for me. I have been watching quarterback play heavy since 1963. I believe in my ability to see NFL talent. I am not saying I am a pro or know more than Hue Jackson or anyone else for that matter. But I trust my judgement.
I sure hope there is a quarterback in this coming draft because the answer is not on the team.
What's your take on Kelly and Kizer? ..
Please let me know what u like and don't like about each ..
we are in a win win situation. cody plays great we may have our Qb, he sucks, we are another loss closer o that #1 overall.
Find the light wherever possible, lol. But unfortunately, that's kinda how I'm approaching it. The one difference perhaps is I'm almost certain Cody doesn't play great.
This is what happens when you have the worst ownwer ship in the history of professional sports. I thought Junior was bad. I was hard on Junior, but I take back everything i said about Junior. I'd gladly take Junior back in a heartbeat over Truckstop Jimmy.
The fact he hired Depodesta and that lawyer to run the team is an absolute joke...we will be worse then the farm league for the yankees...
the Browns are going need a real animated coach....a guy that the team takes on his personality...the Browns haven't had that since Cowher and Marty were here back in the 80's....Cowher took that to the Steelers and that team took on his firey personality...make no mistake Marty Schotenheimer was a firey personality...he didn't take peoples crap and he expected his teams to perform, not get pushed around like pansy children.
This team will never get an identity until we hire coach that has one. I think Hue is a good guy. I think Hue is a good coach. I like Hue. However, Hue would be successful anywhere else but here...he just doesn't have the firey animated personality to force his will on this team to make them take on his characteristics.
Butch Davis "Rah Rah" was working and he got us into the playoffs, but the front office meddled they signed too many free agents and fired guys like Foge Fazio and it really just took the steam out of what Butch was doing here. He was the best coach we had had since Bellichik and we ran him out.
This team is absolute rock bottom in talent when looking at the roster, and we have a coach that can't inspire and motivate his men. Everyone thinks Bellichik is just this quiet scowling guy,but he motivates his guys behind the lockeroom doors, he makes his guys believe in him, and damn it they never quit on him or get pushed around like pansy kids...
As much as pains me to say this...the Browns just need to hand the GM keys over to Marty Schotenheimer, let Schot pick us a coach with a real personality the team can mold itself around to get an identity and let Marty groom us a coach that will be here for a long time with a team thats not a laughing stock...because I assure you...Marty built teams will run the damn ball and they will play defense, two things we have been horrid at since Butch Davis left the team.
Cody Kessler's mentor David Carr: 'He can absolutely be the Browns starting QB'
By Mary Kay Cabot, cleveland.com Follow on Twitter on May 16, 2016 at 7:46 PM, updated May 17, 2016 at 2:35 PM
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns rookie quarterback Cody Kessler had two Carrs in high school that helped him get where he needed to be.
One was Derek, the Pro Bowl quarterback of the Raiders, and one was David, the former No. 1 overall pick of the Texans and current NFL Network analyst.
When Kessler, the Browns' third-round pick out of USC, was a sophomore in high school, the Carrs moved back from Houston to their hometown of Bakersfield, Ca., and connected with the young quarterback through mutual friend and quarterback guru Steve Calhoun.
Before long, David began tutoring not only his younger brother Derek, then a senior at Bakersfield Christian, but Kessler, who played for Bakersfield's Centennial High.
"My buddy (Calhoun) who had trained Cody forever said 'come over and check out this kid, I think he's going to be pretty good,''' David Carr told cleveland.com. "He said, 'he's a basketball player but I think he's going to be a pretty good quarterback.'''
David took Calhoun up on his offer and headed over to the training facility in Bakersfield, a town about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.
"There were all these industrial buildings and there was this one building where there was grass in the back and it was not even level,'' Carr recalled. "It was bumpy and it was really sketchy. The first time I went back there, I was like, 'you guys actually practice back here?' I remember Cody was out there throwing balls and he was dropping back downhill and I was like 'how do you do this?' and we were just kind of laughing about it.''
Cody Kessler and Derek Carr trained together under David Carr as high schoolers in Bakersfield, Ca. (Courtesy Kessler family)
But after that first practice, Carr knew that Kessler had potential.
"I watched him from a distance and I don't know if he missed a pass the whole workout,'' said Carr. "Then I came over and gave him a couple of tips, just basic stuff and he was super coachable. He picked it up, and I started working with him ever since then. He and Derek would always go out and throw and compete, and it was fun watching them develop.''
Kessler (6-1, 215) brought his receivers to the training facility to work with Calhoun, and David and Derek would work there with them during the offseasons of Carr's 11-year NFL career.
"He always had a good release, really good mechanics, really sound, but playing all of these different sports, you don't have a lot of time to focus on the quarterback position,'' said Carr. "But he started working with me and his quarterback coach at Southern Cal (Clay Helton) and we really tightened up his footwork and he can pick things up quick. He's a great athlete.''
Kessler also excelled in basketball at Bakersfield, averaging 30 points and 11 rebounds a game.
"I thought he might try to play basketball but then he had a great (football) season and ended up going to SC and we were all pumped,'' said Carr.
Carr remembers countless hours of working with his Derek and Kessler, preparing them not only for their high school seasons, but for their stellar college careers, Derek at David's alma mater Fresno State and Kessler at USC.
"They don't look anything now like they did back then — they were young kids, and I was like, 'man you guys can be pretty good,''' he said.
But Kessler and Carr — a second-round pick of the Raiders in 2014 who thought he might be drafted by the Browns — didn't dare to dream back then that they might one day face each other in the NFL.
"No, we were just listening to whatever Dave was telling us to do pretty much at that time,'' Kessler said at rookie camp Friday.
Hue Jackson has a high expectation for Cody Kessler but too soon to say if he'll start Hue Jackson has a high expectation for Cody Kessler but too soon to say if he'll start Hue Jackson was happy with Cody Kessler's first day of rookie minicamp, but acknowledges it's too soon to say if he has a chance to start.
As fate would have it, Kessler and Carr faced each other in the 2013 Las Vegas Bowl in the final game of Carr's career. The Trojans blew out Fresno State 45-20, and Kessler threw for 344 yards and a bowl-record four TDs. But Carr, who was held to just 217 yards and two touchdowns, received the consolation prize of becoming just the fourth player in NCAA history to throw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns.
"It was really cool,'' said Kessler. "He ended his career playing against each other which was cool for me. I told him 'good luck with everything' and his response was 'hopefully you'll be there in a couple of years and we'll get to play each other,' — so we'll see.''
David remembers "a lot of trash talk that game but we were pulling for both guys. That was a fun game, a good deal.''
After Derek left college, his father, Rodger, continued to follow Kessler at USC.
"That whole family has just been great to me,'' said Kessler. "Rodger has always been supportive of me and was cheering for me these last couple of years after Derek left, so I've been fortunate enough to know the Carrs really well and have their support.''
Cody Kessler and David Carr David Carr tutored Cody Kessler and his brother Derek Carr when the latter two were in high school. (Courtesy Kessler family) In Derek's rookie season in Oakland, during which he threw for 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, he heard often from his good buddy Kessler.
"I was rooting for him and he's a guy who works so hard and comes from a great family and has a great support system,'' said Kessler. "It's motivation for me too. Someone I used to work with and train with and someone that inspires me.''
For a time, David thought Kessler would follow in his and Derek's footsteps and land at Fresno State.
"But he went to SC and we were so proud and happy,'' said David. "He had to go through a lot at SC. He did such a great job of taking ownership of that team. Every time scouts or anyone would ask me about him, I would say 'this guy had tremendous ability to put a group of guys together and get them going toward a common goal.'
"He had so much coaching changeover and so much drama when he was at SC, and he was always the first guy to stand up there in front of the media and answer questions and put it all on his shoulders.''
The reason Kessler didn't rank as highly as Jared Goff or Carson Wentz, in addition to the all the chaos at USC during his tenure, was concern over his arm strength, David said.
"It's not off the charts,'' he said. "It's not something that's going to blow you away when he's out there in shorts and a t-shirt, but you get this guy in a system, and he will succeed. He definitely belongs in the conversation with those guys.''
David likened Kessler's arm strength to that of nine-time Pro Bowler Drew Brees, who he first witnessed when Carr was a college counselor at an Elite 11 quarterback camp near San Diego.
"Carson Palmer and I took a trip down and saw Drew practicing in San Diego and we were like 'who's the little guy?''' Carr said. "And they were like 'that's the starting quarterback.' And then he ended up being a pretty good quarterback, so Cody's kind of the same way arm strength-wise. It's not going to jump off the page. You're not going to say 'Oh wow,' but you're going to get to the end of practice and he's going to hit 15 out of 16 passes and you're going to say 'he's a pretty efficient guy.'''
David sees other similarities between the two.
"They have very similar mechanics, both are very accurate,'' he said. "Coming out of school they weren't super-high draft picks, but these guys are winners, they're able to lead football teams, they have similar personalities and it's a win-win for the Browns for sure.''
David pounded the same thing into Kessler's head that he did to his little brother: get in your playbook and be prepared.
"All we've ever told Cody — and he's gotten great coaching all over the place —is just be ready mentally,'' said David. "That's the biggest thing. Be someone that your coaches trust and that's how you stand out from the pack, not necessarily going out there and making the wild throw. Just be a guy that's an extension of the coaching staff and he's always been that.''
Despite Kessler's competition this summer with Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown and the Browns other quarterbacks, Davis is confident that Kessler can eventually rise to the top — especially with Hue Jackson coaching him.
"Hue's track record speaks for itself,'' said Davis. "The hard part is there's five guys in that room right now and just getting the reps and making sure you stand out. But he can absolutely be the starting quarterback of the Browns. There'd be no surprise from anyone in Bakersfield or Los Angeles for that matter. He's got a lot of work to do and he knows that, but he can do it.''
And when Kessler and Derek meet up on the field again someday, will they say they owe it all to David?
"They'll say 'we did it despite Dave's help,''' he said with a laugh.
he can be a winning QB for the Browns if he allows those players around him to make plays for him. he will need to get the ball out quickly and accurately and let these fast guys perform. You dont have to have the great arm to be a good deep ball passer but you damn sure better have tremendous accuracy.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
he can be a winning QB for the Browns if he allows those players around him to make plays for him. he will need to get the ball out quickly and accurately and let these fast guys perform. You dont have to have the great arm to be a good deep ball passer but you damn sure better have tremendous accuracy.
I agree, getting the ball out quickly will be key for him, just like Hoyer did. Much less of a change of getting clobbered that way.
While that sounds great on paper and you're right, after watching him in pre season, do you feel he can process things fast enough with the speed on of the NFL game in order to make accurate, quick reads?
It would be great if he can accomplish this, but I find his ability to do so at this young stage of his development suspect at best.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
the haters don't know what they're talking about!!
Cody is doing this all day on Sundays!!
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
I don't hate cody at all. I like him quite a bit. It still doesn't change the fact that his passes travel at a slow velocity even if he can throw it far. NFL CB's are not going to give him those nice big windows to slowly get the ball there with.
Don't get me wrong I hope he does GREAT and I am rooting for him. I just don't see the zip on his throws needed to get the ball where it's going fast enough to avoid tougher coverages.
I think he is a very smart kid though and given time he will read defences very well I think and it might make up for the lack of zip. I think it's a shame he has to be pressed into service so soon though because fans might get a little frustrated with him.
You can't fix stupid but you can destroy ignorance. When you destroy ignorance you remove the justifications for evil. If you want to destroy evil then educate our people. Hate is a tool of the stupid to deal with what they can't understand.
I don't hate cody at all. I like him quite a bit. It still doesn't change the fact that his passes travel at a slow velocity even if he can throw it far. NFL CB's are not going to give him those nice big windows to slowly get the ball there with.
Don't get me wrong I hope he does GREAT and I am rooting for him. I just don't see the zip on his throws needed to get the ball where it's going fast enough to avoid tougher coverages.
I think he is a very smart kid though and given time he will read defences very well I think and it might make up for the lack of zip. I think it's a shame he has to be pressed into service so soon though because fans might get a little frustrated with him.
Kessler's passes were clocked with more velocity than Dak Prescott's at the combine. (55 to 54)
Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson were other guys clocked at 55.
I do question his arm strength some, but I'm not sure velocity is the problem. He is capable of a pretty ball that zips well. Can he get comfortable and in rhythm, though?
You mess with the "Bull," you get the horns. Fiercely Independent.
Everyone remembers how I complained about the Kessler pick ...... and how I have felt that they have had little chances of winning games in the 1st half of this season. However, for some reason, I have a decent feeling about Kessler going into this weekend. Maybe it's just having had so much bad stuff so far this year ....... but I think we just might win this game.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
That is very interesting but I don't think it reveals much how fast they can throw in an optimum situation. It's a matter of how they do it under duress. When you watch video you can tell when the ball zips towards the target and when it just kind of floats its way there. Some call that a big ball.
Keep in mind there are many factors that slow a throw down. Is he throwing far or short? Is he worried more about being accurate? Is is a drop down pass to a bucket or a rocket on a rope? Is the QB confident the receiver will be there? Is the QB confident he sees the right defense? Is he confident that if he throws hard the receiver will catch it?
As you can see max velocity doesn't matter if the QB is full of doubts. There is a reason you want a QB with a lot of confidence. Confidence not just in HIS ability but that of his team too. This is the #1 reason rookie QB's get destroyed. They lose their confidence and they stop throwing with authority and instead end up throwing slowballs.
Tim Couch was a good example of this. He started off throwing hard and then as he kept getting nailed and receivers kept dropping balls left and right he lost confidence in making his throws. His shoulder injury he got while playing didn't help but it was the confidence issue that hurt him more than anything. Derek Anderson was another example. He was nailing it. ZIP ZIP on those passes. Then once he started to feel the pressure of winning his passes slowed down and became even more erratic. You can have high top speed but it doesn't matter if your avg throwing speed drops due to situational stuff and lack of confidence.
I don't blame Cody one bit. He wasn't supposed to play yet. We know it, the coach knows it, and he knows it. It's not anyone's fault. The question will remain though till he proves otherwise. Can he throw with authority on a regular basis or will he throw soft slowballs? So far I have not seen anything to give me confidence one way or the other.
I wish him success 100% though!
btw just for fun I came across this great video by Joe Montana on how to throw a football.
You can't fix stupid but you can destroy ignorance. When you destroy ignorance you remove the justifications for evil. If you want to destroy evil then educate our people. Hate is a tool of the stupid to deal with what they can't understand.
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
I've never really heard of velocity out of the hand as a big indicator, but it makes sense (much like exit velo in baseball is big now)
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
I think the kid has the skillset to be a QB, however I don't know if that skillset translates a starting QB, backup QB or a third string QB in the NFL. I also think that him being pressed into play this early behind this line is about the worst thing we could be doing with him.
BUT this is the NFL and we are the Browns, so he knew it was coming. I hope he is ready at least in his mind.
watching those videos shows me that he can actually throw into small windows that are NFL standards. I'm impressed. I'm actually really impressed by all of the throws in tight coverage. Starting around 3 minutes.
He looks very comfortable.
He definitely can drop it in the bucket over defenders 20 yards downfield
He squares his shoulder and throws nicely.
He's not very quick but it appears he has some nice pocket presence.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Id like Cody to reach out to Kosar,for some knowledge. Id really like to see Bernie,as some kind of mentor. Miss him doing the games..Dieken cant finish a sentenance without studdering..shesh.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BROWNS ROOKIE QB CODY KESSLER
Senior Analyst Sam Monson breaks down the tape on former USC Trojan Cody Kessler before he takes the field in Week 3.
SAM MONSON | 1 DAY AGO (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
The hills are alive with calls of disbelief, as Cody Kessler will start an NFL game before the No. 1 pick in the draft, Jared Goff. It’s certainly worth noting, then, that we are no more than 20 months removed from a time where Kessler was actually the better QB between the then Pac-12 rivals.
At the end of the 2014 season, Kessler (at USC) earned the third-highest PFF grade among QBs in the nation, with a mark of 89.7. That year, he trailed only two players—one of which was the 2015 No. 2 overall pick, Marcus Mariota. Jared Goff was 12th with an 81.1 grade.
That’s not to say that Kessler was ever a better prospect than Goff, because he has never had comparable physical tools, but it wasn’t that long ago that he was playing better football in the same conference. Obviously Goff improved in his final season at Cal (his grade jumped up to 91.3), but if we begin at the point of believing that the 2014 version of Cody Kessler was a pretty good player, we can start to get somewhere.
There were definitely always flaws to Kessler’s game at USC, and even in 2014, he was a player that needed to take a step forward if he was going to be an NFL-caliber signal caller; in college, that tends to happen. It’s unusual, though, that QBs regress in their final collegiate seasons, and that in itself is a big red flag, and a major question that needs to be answered.
Describing Kessler’s play is like an exercise in caveats and qualified statements:
He’s very accurate, but has a marginal arm, at best. He was excellent at USC in 2014, but took a major step back the next season. He navigates the pocket well, but that all went away in 2015. He’s smart and knows where to go with the ball, but comes from a spread system that makes that easier. He’s not very athletic, but makes some key plays with his legs. He showed a lot of NFL promise, but always needed to improve.
With so many ifs, buts, and maybes, it’s very difficult to pin down Kessler as a prospect; let’s start by looking at what he brings to the table.
NFL-level traits
Back in 2014, Kessler put together some excellent tape that shows the kind of player he can be. Take his game against Arizona State, which was one of his poorer performances of the season, but still showed most of the good traits he had in his game at the time. That season, Kessler didn’t have the best pass protection in the world, but he was cool, calm, and collected in the pocket. When things started to break down, he was able to slide rather than panic, and crucially kept his eyes downfield to find another option, rather than drop his vision and concentrate on evading the pressure.
This play is a perfect example:
Kessler feels pressure from the left side of the pocket early, then starts to move to his right into more of it, but never stops scanning downfield for a target, and is able to find a wide-open receiver across the middle of the field before getting hit. That final aspect is another trait to his game—he isn’t afraid of standing in the face of an oncoming hit and delivering the pass, knowing he’s going to get leveled afterwards.
Other than the receiver being wide open at the end of it, this is an NFL-level play from Kessler. In the pros, the difference between viable and non-viable QBs is often how they deal with pressure. The average NFL QB has a passer rating of 93.9 when kept clean in the pocket, but that drops more than 20 points (to 71.6) when pressured. Kessler’s passer rating in 2014 dropped by a little more than 20 points when he was pressured, but he was still at 101.8 on those plays. When blitzed, his passer rating actually went up, and his completion percentage only marginally slipped.
Accuracy and arm talent
The most important aspect of Kessler’s game is his arm talent and accuracy, as well as the balance between the two. His arm strength is marginal at best, and that’s a big reason why he was seen as such a low draft prospect by many. This is a league in which “arm talent” still gets personnel guys excited far more than the mental attributes of QB play, and even more than accuracy. Accuracy is seen as something that can be taught with tweaks to a few mechanics and fundamentals (though that rarely works), while arm talent is seen as something inherent and unteachable (though guys like Aaron Rodgers have developed their arm talent massively since entering the league).
The difference between Cody Kessler’s arm and that of Carson Wentz, or even Goff, is huge. In person, it’s glaring how differently the ball comes out of his hand compared to the other QBs even in Cleveland; he delivers the football at a completely different tempo than RG III or Josh McCown.
You can be successful in the NFL with a weak arm, but you need to have other strengths that counter the problem. Peyton Manning had two of the best years of his career with the Denver Broncos post-neck surgery, after which his arm was never the same. He was able to counter poor arm strength with exceptional anticipation, timing, and understanding of where to go with the ball.
You don’t have to be Peyton Manning though; Chad Pennington was an exceptionally-successful QB with a weak arm whose biggest flaw was a lack of durability. Pennington actually had one of the better deep balls in the league because those deep sideline throws are more about accuracy, timing, and anticipation, rather than pure strength.
Kessler has smaller windows to work with than the average QB, however. The weaker your arm, the longer a pass takes to leave your hand and hit those of your intended receiver, giving coverage defenders more time to make a play on it. To counter that, Kessler needs to put the ball in the air earlier than other QBs.
In college, when a player has an innate understanding of the offense they’re are running and the windows are bigger, that’s very doable. At the NFL level, it becomes a much bigger problem.
This play from the far hash in that same Arizona State game is a good example. It should have been a touchdown, and it’s a decent pass thrown after coming off his primary read, but it’s another wide-open window against college coverages.
At USC, this is a touchdown if his receiver catches it; at the NFL level, the sinking cornerback is closer to the pass, and without being able to put any more zip on the ball, Kessler may have a problem. Even if this particular pass would still have made its way through, this is the kind of play where marginal arm strength can cause issues. Kessler has less margin for error than other quarterbacks with a bigger arm, and therefore needs to be ahead of the game mentally.
That’s likely a problem in year one, because he doesn’t come from a pro-style offense, and like any rookie, is struggling with the adjustment to the NFL. The weight of verbiage, speed of the game, and just working from under center all present challenges to a rookie QB’s mental processing time.
The game needs to slow down for him as much as any rookie, and unfortunately for Kessler, he doesn’t have the physical tools to buy him breathing room until that happens.
If Kessler had been forced into the lineup in 2017, I would actually be quite optimstic about his prospects. At that point, the former Trojan would have had a year in an NFL system to pick up the scheme, understand the offense and where he needs to go with the football, and a year in an NFL strength and conditioning program, which may well have added to his arm talent over that time.
Just three games into the season, though, he has none of that working in his favor, especially having been third on the depth chart throughout camp and seeing limited reps from day one.
Kessler in the 2016 preseason
The first pass Cody Kessler threw in the NFL preseason was a touchdown. Coming in as the fourth QB for the Browns behind RG III, McCown, and Austin Davis, Kessler was handed a starting position at the Green Bay 10-yard line by a fumble, and hit Rashard Higgins for a score on a back-shoulder throw in the end zone. This was a one-read play that displayed nice accuracy, but it was probably the high point of his preseason, which went downhill from there.
The college poise that had served him so well back in 2014 was gone in the NFL. His passer rating over the preseason when kept clean was once again excellent. He had a rating of 104.2 when kept clean in the pocket, completing 77.8 percent of his passes, but when the heat was applied, things went south fast. Under pressure, that passer rating was just 56.3, and against the blitz, also 56.3. Perhaps no one play typified this panicked version of Kessler more than later in that Green Bay game when he ran clean out of the back of the end zone while under pressure for a safety.
Simply put, the game has been too fast for him so far. His average time to throw in the preseason was 2.40 seconds, which was the slowest of the four Browns QBs, and he just isn’t trusting what he is seeing yet.
Take this pass in the final preseason game against Chicago.
Facing third-and-six backed up near their own end zone, the Browns run a simple route concept on the left side of the formation. He has an out-breaking pattern from his running back and a slant from his receiver. With the alignment the Bears deploy, all Kessler needs to do is read man or zone after the snap and put the ball in the air.
The play works, and both parts of the route combination are open, with patterns running them away from man coverage—but only one of them will pick up the first down. As soon as Kessler reads man, he should be locked in on the LWR and put the ball in the air as soon as he knows it will clear the linebacker. But he doesn’t; instead, he holds it, not trusting what he sees until the player has come open inside, and at that point, it’s too late.
Waiting until you see a guy open in the NFL is often too late, especially for a QB with an arm as marginal as Kessler’s, because it gives beaten defenders the chance to recover. If this ball had been out on time, it would have hit his receiver before the cornerback could make a play and moved the chains. By waiting, he allowed the corner to recover position and actually undercut the pass, almost picking it off and turning a bad situation into a disaster.
Bottom line
Cody Kessler was picked in the third round of the draft, much higher than many expected him to go, because there is a lot to like about his tape—in places. He showed in 2014 that he can be a very good QB, and demonstrated plenty of NFL traits; enough, in fact, to convince the Browns that he could overcome his physical limitations and succeed down the road. That player regressed at USC in 2015, which is a big unexplained aspect of his situation, but there were some outside factors at work that could have weighted on that decline.
The biggest issue Kessler faces is that he no longer has time to work on his flaws, and is about to be thrown into NFL action before he is ready. Jared Goff has many of the same problems facing Kessler (minus the physical limitations), and hasn’t been near the starting role for the Rams, with far more incentive there for the team to throw him in, given that he was the No.1 overall pick.
If Kessler had time to develop in the NFL, I think he has tools to work with, but thrown into the fire in Week 3 of his rookie season on a team that is young, inexperienced, and trying just to find its own feet? Kessler’s chances of immediate success don’t look good, and the Browns may need to hope that it doesn’t do his long-term prospects harm.
That final aspect is another trait to his game—he isn’t afraid of standing in the face of an oncoming hit and delivering the pass, knowing he’s going to get leveled afterwards.
He might want to rethink that part, at least for now. I admire toughness but at this point of his career, at this point of what is not going to be a good season.... throw the ball away and live to play the next down.
They should give him a wrist band and every time he opens the flap it's just a picture of Charlie Whitehurst.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BROWNS ROOKIE QB CODY KESSLER
The hills are alive with calls of disbelief, as Cody Kessler will start an NFL game before the No. 1 pick in the draft, Jared Goff. It’s certainly worth noting, then, that we are no more than 20 months removed from a time where Kessler was actually the better QB between the then Pac-12 rivals.
At the end of the 2014 season, Kessler (at USC) earned the third-highest PFF grade among QBs in the nation, with a mark of 89.7. That year, he trailed only two players—one of which was the 2015 No. 2 overall pick, Marcus Mariota. Jared Goff was 12th with an 81.1 grade.
That’s not to say that Kessler was ever a better prospect than Goff, because he has never had comparable physical tools, but it wasn’t that long ago that he was playing better football in the same conference. Obviously Goff improved in his final season at Cal (his grade jumped up to 91.3), but if we begin at the point of believing that the 2014 version of Cody Kessler was a pretty good player, we can start to get somewhere.
There were definitely always flaws to Kessler’s game at USC, and even in 2014, he was a player that needed to take a step forward if he was going to be an NFL-caliber signal caller; in college, that tends to happen. It’s unusual, though, that QBs regress in their final collegiate seasons, and that in itself is a big red flag, and a major question that needs to be answered.
Describing Kessler’s play is like an exercise in caveats and qualified statements:
He’s very accurate, but has a marginal arm, at best. He was excellent at USC in 2014, but took a major step back the next season. He navigates the pocket well, but that all went away in 2015. He’s smart and knows where to go with the ball, but comes from a spread system that makes that easier. He’s not very athletic, but makes some key plays with his legs. He showed a lot of NFL promise, but always needed to improve. With so many ifs, buts, and maybes, it’s very difficult to pin down Kessler as a prospect; let’s start by looking at what he brings to the table.
NFL-level traits Back in 2014, Kessler put together some excellent tape that shows the kind of player he can be. Take his game against Arizona State, which was one of his poorer performances of the season, but still showed most of the good traits he had in his game at the time. That season, Kessler didn’t have the best pass protection in the world, but he was cool, calm, and collected in the pocket. When things started to break down, he was able to slide rather than panic, and crucially kept his eyes downfield to find another option, rather than drop his vision and concentrate on evading the pressure.
This play is a perfect example:
Kessler feels pressure from the left side of the pocket early, then starts to move to his right into more of it, but never stops scanning downfield for a target, and is able to find a wide-open receiver across the middle of the field before getting hit. That final aspect is another trait to his game—he isn’t afraid of standing in the face of an oncoming hit and delivering the pass, knowing he’s going to get leveled afterwards.
Other than the receiver being wide open at the end of it, this is an NFL-level play from Kessler. In the pros, the difference between viable and non-viable QBs is often how they deal with pressure. The average NFL QB has a passer rating of 93.9 when kept clean in the pocket, but that drops more than 20 points (to 71.6) when pressured. Kessler’s passer rating in 2014 dropped by a little more than 20 points when he was pressured, but he was still at 101.8 on those plays. When blitzed, his passer rating actually went up, and his completion percentage only marginally slipped.
Accuracy and arm talent The most important aspect of Kessler’s game is his arm talent and accuracy, as well as the balance between the two. His arm strength is marginal at best, and that’s a big reason why he was seen as such a low draft prospect by many. This is a league in which “arm talent” still gets personnel guys excited far more than the mental attributes of QB play, and even more than accuracy. Accuracy is seen as something that can be taught with tweaks to a few mechanics and fundamentals (though that rarely works), while arm talent is seen as something inherent and unteachable (though guys like Aaron Rodgers have developed their arm talent massively since entering the league).
The difference between Cody Kessler’s arm and that of Carson Wentz, or even Goff, is huge. In person, it’s glaring how differently the ball comes out of his hand compared to the other QBs even in Cleveland; he delivers the football at a completely different tempo than RG III or Josh McCown.
You can be successful in the NFL with a weak arm, but you need to have other strengths that counter the problem. Peyton Manning had two of the best years of his career with the Denver Broncos post-neck surgery, after which his arm was never the same. He was able to counter poor arm strength with exceptional anticipation, timing, and understanding of where to go with the ball.
You don’t have to be Peyton Manning though; Chad Pennington was an exceptionally-successful QB with a weak arm whose biggest flaw was a lack of durability. Pennington actually had one of the better deep balls in the league because those deep sideline throws are more about accuracy, timing, and anticipation, rather than pure strength.
Kessler has smaller windows to work with than the average QB, however. The weaker your arm, the longer a pass takes to leave your hand and hit those of your intended receiver, giving coverage defenders more time to make a play on it. To counter that, Kessler needs to put the ball in the air earlier than other QBs.
In college, when a player has an innate understanding of the offense they’re are running and the windows are bigger, that’s very doable. At the NFL level, it becomes a much bigger problem.
This play from the far hash in that same Arizona State game is a good example. It should have been a touchdown, and it’s a decent pass thrown after coming off his primary read, but it’s another wide-open window against college coverages.
At USC, this is a touchdown if his receiver catches it; at the NFL level, the sinking cornerback is closer to the pass, and without being able to put any more zip on the ball, Kessler may have a problem. Even if this particular pass would still have made its way through, this is the kind of play where marginal arm strength can cause issues. Kessler has less margin for error than other quarterbacks with a bigger arm, and therefore needs to be ahead of the game mentally.
That’s likely a problem in year one, because he doesn’t come from a pro-style offense, and like any rookie, is struggling with the adjustment to the NFL. The weight of verbiage, speed of the game, and just working from under center all present challenges to a rookie QB’s mental processing time.
The game needs to slow down for him as much as any rookie, and unfortunately for Kessler, he doesn’t have the physical tools to buy him breathing room until that happens.
If Kessler had been forced into the lineup in 2017, I would actually be quite optimstic about his prospects. At that point, the former Trojan would have had a year in an NFL system to pick up the scheme, understand the offense and where he needs to go with the football, and a year in an NFL strength and conditioning program, which may well have added to his arm talent over that time.
Just three games into the season, though, he has none of that working in his favor, especially having been third on the depth chart throughout camp and seeing limited reps from day one.
Kessler in the 2016 preseason The first pass Cody Kessler threw in the NFL preseason was a touchdown. Coming in as the fourth QB for the Browns behind RG III, McCown, and Austin Davis, Kessler was handed a starting position at the Green Bay 10-yard line by a fumble, and hit Rashard Higgins for a score on a back-shoulder throw in the end zone. This was a one-read play that displayed nice accuracy, but it was probably the high point of his preseason, which went downhill from there.
The college poise that had served him so well back in 2014 was gone in the NFL. His passer rating over the preseason when kept clean was once again excellent. He had a rating of 104.2 when kept clean in the pocket, completing 77.8 percent of his passes, but when the heat was applied, things went south fast. Under pressure, that passer rating was just 56.3, and against the blitz, also 56.3. Perhaps no one play typified this panicked version of Kessler more than later in that Green Bay game when he ran clean out of the back of the end zone while under pressure for a safety.
Simply put, the game has been too fast for him so far. His average time to throw in the preseason was 2.40 seconds, which was the slowest of the four Browns QBs, and he just isn’t trusting what he is seeing yet.
Take this pass in the final preseason game against Chicago.
Facing third-and-six backed up near their own end zone, the Browns run a simple route concept on the left side of the formation. He has an out-breaking pattern from his running back and a slant from his receiver. With the alignment the Bears deploy, all Kessler needs to do is read man or zone after the snap and put the ball in the air.
The play works, and both parts of the route combination are open, with patterns running them away from man coverage—but only one of them will pick up the first down. As soon as Kessler reads man, he should be locked in on the LWR and put the ball in the air as soon as he knows it will clear the linebacker. But he doesn’t; instead, he holds it, not trusting what he sees until the player has come open inside, and at that point, it’s too late.
Waiting until you see a guy open in the NFL is often too late, especially for a QB with an arm as marginal as Kessler’s, because it gives beaten defenders the chance to recover. If this ball had been out on time, it would have hit his receiver before the cornerback could make a play and moved the chains. By waiting, he allowed the corner to recover position and actually undercut the pass, almost picking it off and turning a bad situation into a disaster.
Bottom line Cody Kessler was picked in the third round of the draft, much higher than many expected him to go, because there is a lot to like about his tape—in places. He showed in 2014 that he can be a very good QB, and demonstrated plenty of NFL traits; enough, in fact, to convince the Browns that he could overcome his physical limitations and succeed down the road. That player regressed at USC in 2015, which is a big unexplained aspect of his situation, but there were some outside factors at work that could have weighted on that decline.
The biggest issue Kessler faces is that he no longer has time to work on his flaws, and is about to be thrown into NFL action before he is ready. Jared Goff has many of the same problems facing Kessler (minus the physical limitations), and hasn’t been near the starting role for the Rams, with far more incentive there for the team to throw him in, given that he was the No.1 overall pick.
If Kessler had time to develop in the NFL, I think he has tools to work with, but thrown into the fire in Week 3 of his rookie season on a team that is young, inexperienced, and trying just to find its own feet? Kessler’s chances of immediate success don’t look good, and the Browns may need to hope that it doesn’t do his long-term prospects harm.
BEREA, Ohio -- Cody Kessler prides himself on preparation, and the Cleveland Browns rookie had a busy two days as he readied for his first start Sunday in Miami against the Dolphins.
"Monday we stayed here until probably about 10 o'clock at night," Kessler said Wednesday. "I was watching game film and putting in the game plan. (Tuesday) was the same thing. Got here pretty early and didn't leave until about 10 o'clock again."

Receiver Terrelle Pryor said he likes to come to the facility on his day off.
"I was here until about 6:30, 7, and he's in there watching film," Pryor said. "When I went in there to talk to him he was like, 'Hey man, they do this here, be ready for this.' He started giving me little tips."
"One thing I think we all know about Cody," coach Hue Jackson said, "is that he's in this building from morning to night. You got to kick him out. That's just the way he is."
Kessler said it's how he's succeeded. At 6-foot-1, he's not the biggest and he doesn't have an arm like Joe Flacco. Kessler said at every step he's had to overcome perceptions, and he's done it with work.
By Tuesday night he had watched tape of Miami's losses to Seattle and New England six or seven times each.
"That's my process," Kessler said.
Kessler completed 67.5 percent of his throws at USC, with 88 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. He said in his first start for the Trojans he missed a throw, then completed 15 in a row. He also said playing in a pro-style offense at USC would help.
"Some coaches want certain things on different plays, but being able to look at a play or concept and say, ‘OK, I’ve done this before,’ has helped my process up to this point," Kessler said.
While Kessler is listed as the starter, Pryor served as the Brown's third quarterback against Baltimore. Pryor played the position at Ohio State and in Oakland, and he has run read-option plays for the Browns at various times.
Some coaches go into a shell when they start a rookie, but doing that does not seem to fit Hue Jackson's personality. Pryor said he'll do whatever he's asked.
"I am starting at Z; I'll be starting at receiver," Pryor said. "But you know what? For this city, for the coaching staff that worked their butts off and my teammates I will do anything for us to win. Anything. Cut my finger off, do whatever I have to do."
You mess with the "Bull," you get the horns. Fiercely Independent.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
from the looks of that chart, he's way more accurate near the LOS ... then drops off dramatically as the throws increase
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
To the hospital too?! Man don't jinx us like that ...
You can't fix stupid but you can destroy ignorance. When you destroy ignorance you remove the justifications for evil. If you want to destroy evil then educate our people. Hate is a tool of the stupid to deal with what they can't understand.
from the looks of that chart, he's way more accurate near the LOS ... then drops off dramatically as the throws increase
That's true for almost all QB's. I mean even a 10 yard pass can be forced to travel 40 plus yards to complete considering they don't count yards behind the line of scrimmage or to the sideline.
You can't fix stupid but you can destroy ignorance. When you destroy ignorance you remove the justifications for evil. If you want to destroy evil then educate our people. Hate is a tool of the stupid to deal with what they can't understand.
This is what happens when you have the worst ownwer ship in the history of professional sports. I thought Junior was bad. I was hard on Junior, but I take back everything i said about Junior. I'd gladly take Junior back in a heartbeat over Truckstop Jimmy.
Knight,
I'm not arguing to troll, just to make a point from my perspective on our history.
When we were all being hyped on how Al Lerner was the greatest guy since Gandhi and they were going not going to leave any stone unturned to get it right, we initially were being sold that Bill Walsh, and other big names, were going to be brought in to build the new franchise. Walsh's name was actually being thrown around and reported on.
We ended up with Policy and Clark. Al and Junior were never able to get it on track after that. Policy, Clark, Palmer ... the stage was set.
Jimmy buys the team. There were many different ways he could have went with it. He put all his eggs in the Banner basket. Some of us couldn't understand it. Banner made some decent decisions with Philly, but he also made many mistakes. He was unemployed for a reason. I couldn't understand what would cause Jimmy to give so much control to a guy with a such a spotty, up and down, track history. We all knew that Lombardi would be part of the deal and many of us were not good with it. Then came Farmer, who I railed against, from the beginning, and was chastised for it. Farmer never, ever, showed he had the ability to be anything more than a personnel guy. He really wasn't very good at that if you knew his background in Kansas City.
It will take Jimmy a long time to dig out of the hole the Banner decision plunged us into. Jimmy initially putting all his eggs in the Banner basket set him, and us, back a minimum of 8 years or so.
Banner sold him a bill of goods, he bought into it, and the results have been devastating.
Jimmy, Al, Junior ... they all have been equally incompetent.
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