Kizer vs. Woodside: Titans of Toledo competing for Tennessee QB role

Jun. 19—Two of the biggest names to ever throw a football in Toledo are competing for the same spot with the Tennessee Titans.

Central Catholic product DeShone Kizer — who excelled at Notre Dame before playing for the NFL's Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers — is in the mix to be the Titans' back-up quarterback.

So is former University of Toledo star Logan Woodside, who was a Titans' backup the last two seasons and got his first NFL playing time last year.

One of those Toledo titans will be No. 2 on the depth chart behind starter Ryan Tannehill.

"They're two guys who fall under that old adage of 'gym rat,'" Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing said during the recent mini-camp. "They're two guys who love getting in here and watching film and going through plays. They're very self-critical. It's been fun to work with those guys, and I'm excited to watch that competition unfold."

Mandatory mini-camp concluded Thursday, and the official start of training camp is July 27.

Tennessee quarterbacks coach Pat O'Hara has seen Woodside and Kizer both bring their best effort and make strides.

"It's a healthy competition right now with those two guys," O'Hara said this week. "The key for them is preparing every day, and they both have come prepared each day throughout our offseason program, and shown some leadership."

While at UT, Woodside became the Rockets' career leader in passing yards (10,514) and touchdown passes (93) and went 29-9 as a starter.

He was chosen in the seventh round (249th overall pick) of the 2018 NFL draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, who waived him prior to the 2018 season. He was signed to the Titans' practice squad Sept. 25 of that year.

Woodside has been with Tennessee, on and off, since then. He mixed in seven games with the San Antonio Commanders of the Alliance of American Football League in 2019. He played in his first NFL game with the Titans last year.

"The thing about Logan is his work level, his work ethic," O'Hara said. "He doesn't really allow anyone outwork him. The guy works really hard in everything he's had to do. He's done a good job of getting guys out before camp began and throwing with him. He's always done that. That doesn't surprise me."

The 6-4, 235-pound Kizer helped Central win a Division II state championship in 2012, and was a first team D-III All-Ohioan as a senior in 2013.

Kizer started for two seasons at Notre Dame, before opting to enter the NFL draft, Kizer was selected in the second round (52nd overall pick) in 2017 by his home-state Cleveland Browns, who struggled through an 0-16 season his rookie year. Kizer was thrust into a role as the starter on a subpar team, perhaps before he was totally prepared. He started 15 games for the Browns that year, and threw for 2,894 yards and 11 touchdowns, with 22 interceptions.

He was traded in 2018 to Green Bay, where he backed up the Packers' NFL icon Aaron Rodgers. He was signed to the Oakland Raiders' practice squad in 2019.

Kizer was signed by Tennessee last year as a "quarantine QB," a player in quarantine who could play if the team had an outbreak.

"Last year was hard for him," O'Hara said. "I credit him. Being a quarantine quarterback, really just him dealing with me for a lot of hours on Zoom, and then he would come after everyone was done, and we would go out and throw and then go over the game plan. He handled that really well. He had been eager to get back on the field, and it shows. The transition has been good for him."

The Titans are focused more on Kizer's future more than his past.

"It doesn't matter how you got here," O'Hara said of Kizer. "It matters what you do when you're here. The first mode of operation for him was last year, which was not easy, and it required a ton of mental concentration and not really being able to do anything or leave the house. For him, it was like, 'Look man, you got to be ready to roll and step in if we have some weird outbreak, and that can happen at any time.' So the challenge for him was to understand the game plan each week without really taking any reps.

"That was Step 1. Now, with him back on the field, this is Step 2. Getting in the huddle and having some command and being able to translate what he's learned about our offense and translate it into his play. So far, it's been good."

First Published June 19, 2021, 2:00pm