BEREA: Browns coach Hue Jackson amended a comment he made earlier this week about rookie quarterback Cody Kessler.
On Monday, Jackson said Kessler “is playing as good as I have had in a long time.”
On Wednesday, Jackson said, “What I meant by that is he is one of the better rookie quarterbacks that I have coached. ... He is playing as well as any rookie quarterback that I have had.”
That’s still high praise, especially because Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens was named rookie of the year and became the first rookie quarterback to win two playoff games when Jackson served as his position coach in 2008.
But the point is Jackson and the rest of those in charge of the Browns don’t want to get carried away with any Kessler hype when he’s started just four games and the team owns a record of 0-6 as it prepares to visit the 2-4 Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
Yet the third-round draft pick from the University of Southern California may have a better chance to become a long-term starter for the franchise than anyone anticipated a month ago.
“Cody is a beast,” rookie wide receiver Ricardo Louis said. “He got thrown into the fire, but he just ran with it.
Kessler has completed 65.6 percent of his passes for 865 yards and four touchdowns with an interception. His passer rating of 93.8 ranks 14th in the NFL.
“I have to keep improving. I have to get more comfortable. I have to do these things in crucial situations that will help us win games,” Kessler said. “That has been my main focus. Obviously, I want to build off of the things that I might have had a little success in, but your biggest focus point should be on things that you need to improve on.”
At least for now, there isn’t a draft-eligible college quarterback who has presented himself as a no-brainer, slam-dunk No. 1 overall pick, which the Browns are on pace to own next year because they’re the NFL’s only winless team. Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson may be the best of the bunch but have blemishes.
So what does Kessler need to do to impact the Browns’ plans for the 2017 draft?
“That is a good question,” Jackson replied. “I don’t know that anybody will affect the draft plans. I don’t think we will talk about those until the season is over.
“We are going to do everything we can to get better everywhere. I just think that is how we look at it. We want to have a good team as we continue to move forward.”
The Browns aren’t good, but they’re learning whether they already have a good, young quarterback on their roster. If there’s a silver lining to losing quarterbacks Robert Griffin III (fractured left shoulder) and Josh McCown (fractured left collarbone) to injuries in the first two games, Jackson said it’s that “you find out what you have” in Kessler.
“We have had a really good look at him, and we will continue to get a look at him as we move forward and know what he is,” Jackson said. “What he is so far looks pretty good. He is doing well, and I kind of anticipated some of that, but at the same time, you don’t know until you play.
“He has done some good things, but he has to keep stacking good games and practices and games on top of each other, and it is not going to always go right neither. I think we all know that. That is the National Football League. If he can stay consistent and consistently grow through all of this, then he will get better.”
There may always be doubts about Kessler, 23, because he isn’t the prototype. At 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, he lacks ideal size and arm strength.
But could he eventually reach the level of Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton? Dalton, 6-2 and 220 pounds, doesn’t have a rocket arm, either, but he has made two Pro Bowls, and the Bengals have made the playoffs every season since they drafted him in the second round in 2011.
“Andy is a pro that has been doing it for a long time,” said Jackson, who guided Dalton the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Bengals. “He knows how to do it, and he has worked his tail off to get to where he is. I think we all know Andy is one of the better quarterbacks in this league in my opinion.
“Cody is working to get there. He has a long way to go to even be on that platform. He has to do it enough over time before he can ever be considered in a conversation with anybody like that, but what he is doing right now as a young player for our football team is as good as I have seen.”
Kessler actually got to know Dalton pretty well this past summer while they worked out together under the direction of throwing guru Tom House in Los Angeles.
“He talked about Hue very highly and loved him as a coach and just kept telling me I was very fortunate,” Kessler said of Dalton. “He is a great guy. He is a great competitor, and he throws the ball obviously really well, so I was learning from him.”
Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins first compared Kessler to Dalton two weeks ago in an interview with the Beacon Journal, and he did it again this week. Hawkins played for the Bengals when Dalton had a rocky preseason as a rookie but went on to make a Pro Bowl that year. Kessler endured rough exhibition outings but has looked much better in the regular season.
“There was a lot of question marks going in, but he thrives once he is kind of running the show,” Hawkins said, “and that is how Andy Dalton was.”
Hawkins added Kessler has what it takes to be a quality NFL starter, and he doesn’t view his arm strength as an issue.
“He is still young, and he is still learning,” Hawkins said, “but I think he is light-years ahead of what you see out of normal rookies.”
Kessler’s rapid development is tied to his dedication. The Browns are off on Tuesdays, but it’s his longest workday of the week. He watches plenty of game film and doesn’t leave team headquarters until about 9 p.m.
The most important lesson he learned this week is he must get rid of the ball against the Bengals sooner than he did Sunday in a 28-26 loss to the Tennessee Titans, who had 11 quarterback hits, including six sacks.
“Some of the sacks last game, watching the film, were on me,” Kessler said. “The offensive line did a great job. I just have to help them out and get the ball out a little bit quicker.”
Kessler’s awareness has allowed him to play as well as any rookie nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas can remember.
“He was going to be the guy that learns under Robert and Josh and see what he can do in the future years, but he was thrust into service, and I think he really surpassed people’s expectations, not only what he’s doing on the field, but how he prepares himself,” Thomas said. “As a leader, as a quarterback, those intangibles that you need to have, he’s clearly the type of guy that has those intangibles that can be a great quarterback in the NFL.”
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.