BEREA, Ohio -- Browns quarterbacks coach David Lee admitted Sunday that he's eager to see DeShone Kizer under the bright lights of the nationally televised Monday night game against the Giants Aug. 21 to help determine if he'll be ready for the Steelers on Sept. 10.

"He's a lot better than he was in the spring, but he's still not there, guys,'' Lee said before practice on Sunday. "He knows it. There's so doggone much and right when he has good practices, then (bad) things happen in a game.

"That's why this one Monday night is so good for him. That's what we need. Put him in real lights, a national television game, and see if he can carry these fundamentals that we're harping on him over and over and over to the game.''

Hue Jackson will wait until midweek to choose between Kizer and Brock Osweiler, but Kizer will likely be the No. 2 if he doesn't get the nod so they can evaluate him against better competition.

Lee noted that Kizer, who engineered a fourth-quarter comeback against the Saints Thursday with his two bombs, is bolting up the learning curve, but "has he got it mastered? Not yet. We've got to know he can do all of it before we put him out there full time. So he's not ready for that yet.''



But that doesn't mean that the Notre Dame product can't close the gap by the time the Steelers roll into town.



"We've got for sure two more games,'' said Lee, not counting the throw-away fourth exhibition game in Chicago. "You get three under your belt, you've got a pretty good feeling about what your quarterback can do and can't do. But I'm looking forward to watching his progression in all these areas we're talking about in these next two games, and we'll see where he is then."

So you're saying there's a chance?

At this point, the Browns might still want to start Osweiler to start the first quarter of the schedule -- which includes three AFC North games -- but if Kizer demonstrates he can execute the offense and not hurt the team, they're not concerned about his psyche.

"DeShone has enough confidence for the whole team,'' said Lee. "I'm not worried about his confidence. He's good about taking instruction. He's good about trying to do what we want him to do. Has it all happened yet? Not yet, but it's coming and he's thinking right proper."

Lee, who put Kizer "in the mold of a Ben Roethlisberger or Joe Flacco'' in June, raved once again about the rookie's cannon arm, as evidenced by his passes of 52 and 45 yards on TD drives against the Saints.

Lee also revealed that the Browns ranked Kizer's processing speed at the top of his class, which included Mitch Trubisky, Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes, all of whom the Browns passed on in the first round.

"This kid's bright,'' said Lee. "Let me tell you, he's smart. All those quarterbacks who came out, we loved his brains and test scores.''

His football acumen has enabled the Browns to throw the kitchen sink at him from the moment he was drafted No. 52 overall in April.

"Install-wise, shoot, it's been full speed ahead,'' said Lee. "He's been right up there. The water's still deep -- it isn't going down on him yet -- but Hue hasn't held anything back.''

Jackson and Kizer both alluded to the rookie having some issues barking out the plays Thursday night, but Lee revealed that his helmet battery malfunctioned.

"He was out there on his own there for a little while,'' said Lee. "I thought he did a good job overcoming some adversity. He's doing better all the time. He really is with the play delivery and as the team changes, the game plan changes, there's a new set of memorization that's got to take place, and it's hard. It's not easy. I promise you it's not easy what he's doing. He's doing a heck of a job.''



But "is he there yet? Not really."

Lee, who's worked with the likes of Vinny Testaverde, Tony Romo, Drew Bledsoe, Chad Pennington and Tarvaris Jackson, sees instincts in Kizer that blow him away.

They were on display on the play preceding his game-winning 45-yard TD pass to Jordan Payton on fourth and 2. It was third and 24 from the 33, and Kizer cleared out a linebacker en route to a high-level 22-yard pass to Ranell Hall on a comeback route.

"It's called the ocean route where he shoulder-shrugged the flat defender and moved left and threw right behind him,'' said Lee. "That's really, really good. I hadn't taught that yet because I don't think he's ready for it yet, but that's how natural his instincts are and how good he is and can be. The timing was unbelievable. He did that on his own.''

Lee said Kizer's football has improved dramatically after he threw primarily out of the shotgun in college, and that he's confident Kizer's 60.7 percent college completion percentage will increase. He also said "he can throw from under center fine.''

So far, "the raising of a quarterback'' as Jackson calls it is going even better than expected. Question is, will he come of age in time for the Steelers?