As I mentioned in my pre-combine schedule post, the interview process is one of the most important parts of the combine. It's where a team can become absolutely enamoured with a guy. They become so convinced he's the man, they end up over-drafting him come April.
Now I've commented previously that Kizer isn't a QB that I like all that much. It's not that I don't like him, I'm just not sold on him as a top 10 guy and that's the selection the Jets have. However early reports from Indianapolis indicate that he's impressing, even before he takes the field for passing drills on Saturday.
While the new 49'ers GM John Lynch was speaking to the media, he had this to say about Kizer:
"This whole thing is not just about an interview, but if you were grading him on that alone, he blew the doors off. He's an impressive young man, his film's very impressive,"
When you're handing the reigns of your franchise over to a young signal caller, you have to be sure about their character. They need to be the hardest working person on the team. If you ever saw Cool Runnings as a kid, then the QB is the equivalent of the driver, and if you want to throw in some lucky eggs...I'm not gonna stop you.
Kizer also measured in as the biggest QB at the combine. Coming in at 6 foot 4 and 233 pounds. Now when you consider how much athleticism he has, that's pretty impressive. Add that to his ability to push the ball down the field and his willingness to stand in the pocket and take a hit, and it's easy to see why teams like him.
However, don't forget about the various weaknesses to his game. He holds onto the ball too long, taking needless sacks. He throws too many interceptions, sometimes forcing the ball into double or triple coverage. Plus, he doesn't exactly throw with a great deal of anticipation, instead waiting for windows to open before release.
Still, it's interesting to see the terminology that was used, blowing the doors off...that's quite an impressive interview, if most of us blew the doors off in our interviews, we'd be walking into a new job.