The Green Bay Packers certainly sound like a team that still think they’re coming off a deep playoff run. Not a team that’s failed to make the playoffs for two years. Nobody wants to accept the reality that this isn’t the old NFC North they’d owned for years. The Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings are contenders. The Detroit Lions even swept them in the season series last year.
So where is this unfounded optimism coming from? Two directions for the most part. They still have Aaron Rodgers, a future Hall of Fame quarterback. They’ve also made several new additions to their defense. Enough to where people are convinced it’s poised to become one of the best in the league. That remains to be seen but in truth, there’s nothing to suggest this team is suddenly poised to regain the form that led to a Super Bowl nine years ago.
Perhaps nothing illustrates how inflated the expectations are for this team than DeShone Kizer. The former 2nd round pick of the Cleveland Browns became a Packer last year when the team traded for him. A move that should be called into serious question given they gave up Damarious Randall who had a good year in Cleveland as a result.
It appears the young backup has somewhat grandiose plans for his future.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
Green Bay Packers backup thinks he’s the next Nick Foles
It seems Kizer isn’t content with just being Rodgers’ backup. He told Packers News of USA Today that his expectations go far higher. In fact, he’s of the firm belief that somewhere down the road in the near future he is going to do something that only three other men have accomplished in NFL history.
“Personnel, especially in this organization, is strictly upstairs. And I don’t work upstairs. My office is downstairs. Therefore, my mentality is about me. I have all the confidence in the world that when I’m playing my best ball there’s no one who can stop me,” he shared. “For me to compare myself to another backup quarterback who’s in or a tryout guy who comes in would be dumb of me in the sense that I would be limiting myself because I don’t see myself as a career backup in this league.
“I don’t see myself as Aaron Rodgers’ backup for the final era of his career. I see myself as a future Super Bowl MVP. That’s the goal that I want to head toward. That’s the level I want to play at. Therefore, if I’m competing and focused in on the backup competition, then once again, I’m limiting myself.”
It’s interesting that Kizer would compare himself to somebody like Nick Foles. The new starter for the Jacksonville Jaguars was a shock when he won Super Bowl MVP in 2017 for the Philadelphia Eagles. The only thing is? It shouldn’t have been. Foles had gone to the Pro Bowl four years prior. There was plenty of evidence to suggest he could play well in the NFL under the right circumstances.
There has been nothing to this point that suggests Kizer is capable of the same. The guy is 0-15 as a starter with 11 touchdowns to 24 interceptions in just 18 career games. Everything he’s put on tape to this point says he lacks certain qualities to survive the NFL, let alone thrive enough to win a Super Bowl.
The again, it appears he’s not the only one with an inflated opinion of himself in Green Bay these days.
