Editor's note: Tony Grossi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN 850 WKNR.

The indignity of it all: Cleveland, being the place where quarterbacks go to die, may have met its match in DeShone Kizer.

Sure, Kizer’s rookie season has been nothing to write home to Toledo about.

He is last among NFL starting quarterbacks in completion percentage and passer rating.

He is 0-8 as a starter, which means if he loses his next start Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he will un-tie Cody Kessler for the worst career record among the 28 quarterbacks to start a game for the Browns since their 1999 expansion rebirth.

He has been pulled from games on two occasions and has been made inactive for one game.

After professing unrequited loyalty to him, his coach led the charge to trade for Cincinnati Bengals backup quarterback AJ McCarron at a premium price, only to have the trade blow up because of front office dawdling at the league deadline.

And just in the past five days, Kizer:

* Had a brain-lock at the end of the first half in Detroit and audibled to a quarterback sneak from the 2-yard line with no timeouts and 15 seconds left, costing the team points in a closely-fought game.

* Absorbed a helmet hit to his rib cage from Detroit Lions cornerback Quandre Diggs when David Njoku, Kizer’s road roommate and best friend on the team, missed a block.

* Took a direct jab from LeBron James, Cleveland’s most famous sports fan, who opined to his adoring media scrum, “Deshaun Watson should've been our quarterback.”

* Received a barb from Jacksonville quarterback and interception-machine Blake Bortles, who, when asked to offer advice to curb Kizer’s high interception rate, joked, “Try to throw it to your team as much as possible.”

* Suffered the indignity of wearing a Miami Hurricanes pullover as a result of losing a bet on the Notre Dame-Miami game by the aforementioned Njoku.

“The ribs. The benching. All that stuff. This is by far the worst,” Kizer said Wednesday, laughing.

Still standing: The fact that Kizer is able to laugh at this stage of his rookie season is a very healthy sign, actually.

At the NFL Combine in March, the army of NFL team shrinks focused on Kizer’s alleged lack of love for the game – a certifiable red flag on his psychological profile. In front of the mass media gauntlet, Kizer came across as too serious, borderline somber and sullen.

He admitted at the time that he envied Deshaun Watson’s “simple love for the game and how much fun he has during it … the way he smiles and the way he goes about it and the way he enjoys it is something I definitely want to bring into the way I go about my processes.”

Kizer has accomplished that in his trying rookie season. And there has been more, despite the ignominious individual and team statistics.

I can’t think of a Browns rookie quarterback who was so poorly served by this misguided organization as Kizer.

First, he was not supported with a veteran quarterback to show him the ropes away from the auspices of the coaches and provide a shoulder to lean on when the responsibility of the losing streak weighed on him. Instead, he was surrounded by two second-year quarterbacks who never experienced an NFL win in their own right.

Kizer was asked to do too much too soon.

Hue Jackson’s lofty demands for the position were never amended for a rookie. Jackson has called pass plays roughly 62.9 percent of the time. The league average is 57.7 percent. As badly as Bortles has played, he benefits from having to drop back and pass on only 49.7 percent of Jacksonville’s offensive plays.

And then there has been the poor excuse of a receiving corps beset Kizer.

The loss of Corey Coleman for eight games due to a broken hand was out of the Browns’ control, but the additions of veteran slackers Kenny Britt and Sammie Coates to an inauspicious group of assorted late-round draft picks and waiver pick-ups have submarined Kizer’s already-poor accuracy mark.

According to various Web sites, the Browns rank only 10th in the league with 12 dropped passes as a team; it seems as if they’ve had double that number.

Through it all, Kizer has persevered, if nothing else. He has fallen. He has gotten up.

And despite another loss in Detroit, Kizer produced his best game yet, not only reducing his turnovers to one meaningless interception at the end but also making plays with his arm and his legs to keep the Browns in the contest much of the day.

It doesn’t get easier: Kizer’s reward?

Kizer already lost security blanket franchise left tackle Joe Thomas to a season-ending triceps injury. Now it appears that right tackle Shon Coleman could miss the Jaguars game with a concussion.

The Jaguars come to town Sunday sporting the NFL’s No. 3 overall defense, No. 1 pass rush and No. 1 pass defense. And Kizer may be protected by the team’s third and fourth offensive tackles, 2016 fifth-round pick Spencer Drango and 2017 waiver pickup Zach Banner, respectively.

Last week, Jackson expressed astonishment at the local media’s obsession with Kizer’s confidence being harmed by the coach’s stern handling and repeated benchings of him.

“I have never, ever seen more stories about that ever in my life,” Jackson flared. “That is part of growth of a quarterback. If a guy is not getting the job done … I don’t care what position it is, you have to put somebody else in, and hopefully, they will learn and grow from that and get better. I think he has done that.

“I think he gets it. I think the message, which is loud and clear of what we are attempting to do, that is not a knock on him. That is just part of it. I think he has grown from all of these things that have happened. Hopefully, he will come out of the other side of it and do what we all feel he can do, but until then, all of these things are going to be said and written and all of that. I get that. I think he does, too, now.”

On Wednesday, Njoku marveled at Kizer’s mental and physical toughness, and his progression as a leader of the team.

“Obviously, he has so much on his plate going on, just being a rookie quarterback in the NFL,” Njoku said. “There is a bunch of stuff he has to worry about, but I think he is doing a tremendous job leading everybody and just trying to get everybody together, focused and playing for each other.

“I’m really excited to see how his career progresses.”

Many in Cleveland who preceded Kizer in his role would have been buried by now. But in his case, that which doesn’t kill him may make him stronger.