BEREA, Ohio _ DeShone Kizer thought his dad and Notre Dame's Brian Kelly coached him as hard as anyone could.
Then the rookie quarterback began practicing under the guidance of Browns coach Hue Jackson.
"I thought my standards were high with the way that my dad coached me when I was younger and high with Coach Kelly. Coach Jackson just took it to a whole other level," Kizer said Saturday before the second practice of the team's three-day rookie minicamp. "He expects greatness out of all of his players.
"There's a reason him and (head of football operations) Sashi (Brown) select the guys to come to the Browns, and that's to hold us to the highest standards and get back to winning. He expects greatness, and he's going to continue to push me as hard as I would want to push myself."
There were times during Kizer's first NFL practice Friday when Jackson made him redo a repetition because it wasn't good enough. There were also times Jackson pumped his fist and praised Kizer for good technique.
The Browns drafted Kizer in the second round (No. 52 overall) because he has prototypical arm strength and size (6-foot-4\ and 233 pounds) and impressive intelligence and mobility.
They won't keep him on the bench to begin his career if he emerges as the victor of a training camp competition against Cody Kessler, Brock Osweiler and Kevin Hogan.
But they also made it clear Jackson must, first and foremost, mold a young player whose inconsistent mechanics and footwork led to accuracy issues at Notre Dame.
"There was just a big emphasis on speeding things up (in practice)," Kizer said. "Obviously, the game's a lot faster (in the NFL than college). The ball has to get out quicker. So (Jackson) was trying to take away some of the unnecessary footwork that I have.
"I like to consider myself a pretty blank canvas in the sense that I've never really had a true, fundamental quarterback coach up until a couple months ago. So to have (Jackson) come out and give me some insight, I've been able to take that and perform the way that he wants."
The private quarterbacks coach Kizer used for his pre-draft training is Zac Robinson. He was a third-string quarterback with the Cincinnati Bengals during some of Jackson's time there. Kizer said his transition to the NFL "has actually been kind of been an easy" one because Robinson braced him for how practices are run and Jackson's expectations for his QBs.
Robinson, Jackson and Browns quarterbacks coach David Lee have worked with Kizer on shortening his delivery.
"The big frame that I have, there's a lot that can go wrong," Kizer said. "You give yourself a lot of opportunity that you're going to get long in your arm motion or long in your legs. To simplify and shrink everything down, there's a bunch of different ways to get to it, and Coach Jackson has proven to be one of the best guys to do it."
Kizer also plans to train with throwing guru Tom House this offseason. Jackson routinely sends his quarterbacks to work with House in Los Angeles.
Repetition is vital for quarterbacks. It's common for them to tweak mechanics but fall back into bad habits when they're under duress in a real game.
So Jackson is harping on consistency with Kizer.
"He's a very talented player," Jackson said. "He's a big guy with a big arm and very bright. He has a lot of upside. But he has a lot of work to do, and I think he knows that.
"He was a young man playing in the shotgun probably 90 percent of the time and had not played under center and had not played really in a sophisticated pro-style offense.
"He did some really good things (in practice), but you have to do it again and again and again. The consistency of playing quarterback in the NFL at a high level is a challenge."
At Notre Dame, Kizer signaled plays to his teammates. In Jackson's offense, the quarterback must call 15-word plays in a huddle. So Kizer has been reciting plays in his free time.
Kizer is confident in his ability to retain information and deems himself a quick study. He also thinks it's "awesome" Jackson will give him a chance to win the starting job.
But he knows focusing on anything other than his development would be premature.
"There's so much I need to learn before I can even consider thinking about competition and trying to play," Kizer said. "Right now, I'm at step one. I need to get to level 500 before I can even consider stepping on an NFL field."
