Packers coach Mike McCarthy has high praise for the backup quarterback Green Bay acquired this offseason, DeShone Kizer.
McCarthy said Kizer compares to the elite prospects in this year’s draft, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen and Josh Rosen.
“He has starter ability in this league. Clearly,” McCarthy said. “In my opinion, if he was in that class this year, he would have been part of the first five quarterbacks, the first-round guys. He has exceptional arm talent.”
That doesn’t make a lot of sense: Last year Kizer went in the latter part of the second round, No. 52 overall. Kizer did not have a good rookie year, which is why the Browns sent him to Green Bay. So if Kizer wasn’t a first-round pick a year ago, and didn’t have a good year, why would he be a first-round pick this year?
McCarthy also talked up backup quarterback Brett Hundley last year after Aaron Rodgers went down, and Hundley did not play well enough to justify McCarthy’s high praise. So perhaps McCarthy just likes to publicly bolster his backup quarterbacks. Because an honest assessment would suggest that Kizer is not a first-round talent, and if he was the Browns wouldn’t have traded him to the Packers.