CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Kevin Hogan has been the hero in three games this season, and now he'll have a chance to rescue the Browns from their 0-5 spiral.

"I've made the decision to start Kevin this week,'' coach Hue Jackson announced in a release. "We've liked what Kevin has been able to do within our offense when he's been in there and he will start on Sunday because that's what we feel is best for our team at this point in time.''

He re-iterated that he still believes in rookie DeShone Kizer, who went 0-5 and tumbled to the bottom of the NFL with a 49.5 rating.

"This does not change the way we feel about DeShone going forward,'' Jackson said. "He's worked extremely hard and still very much has a bright future. Right now, it's better for him and his development to back up Kevin."

An afterthought in the Browns' three-way quarterback competition during camp, Hogan will replace the rookie for at least Sunday's game in Houston, where he'll go against red-hot rookie Deshaun Watson, whom the Browns passed on at at No. 12 in last year's draft. He'll also likely be the quarterback for the foreseeable future.

Hogan becomes the second starter already this season, and No. 28 for the Browns since their return in 1999.

Jackson gave every indication after Sunday's 17-14 loss to the Jets, in which he benched Kizer at halftime, that Hogan would be his new man.

"He understands the system," Jackson said after the loss, which dropped him 1-20 in his second season. "The ball comes out (quicker). Let's not compare him to DeShone. We're talking about a guy who's a rookie who I think still has great promise and didn't play as well today.

"We have a backup quarterback who came in and did what his job was - to play and give the team the best opportunity. I thought Kevin did some good things.''

Hogan, who will make his first NFL start, also drew praise from left tackle Joe Thomas, who's blocked for 19 of those starting quarterbacks already. Hogan will make it 20.

"He just keeps getting better and better and better and keeps showing that even though maybe he wasn't a high draft pick that when he gets the opportunity he makes the most of it,'' said Thomas. "He throws the ball to the right guy, on time, on target. He does a good job with getting us in the right protections on the right guys in the pass game.

"He gets out of bad runs when they have a bad look on defense for us. So I think the confidence of the coaching staff just keeps growing when he's out there and that's why I think he just keeps moving up.''

Originally a fifth-round draft pick of the Chiefs out of Stanford, Hogan has replaced Kizer in three games this season and has produced all of the Browns' points in each of those three games: 10 in Baltimore when Kizer came out for a while with a migraine, seven against the Bengals to avoid a shutout in the fourth quarter, and 14 in Sunday's loss to the Jets.

In each of his three appearances, he's produced a touchdown on his first drive -- the kind of quick start the Browns sorely need -- and he's generated 31 points in his 10 series.

"I'm very confident,'' he said after the Jets game. "I'm a very confident person. If you do your job in preparation and leading up to the game, then you do not let things surprise you. I'm big with visualization. I play the game before the game starts. That's something that I've been doing since back in college.

"Last year, I got to play a little bit, but I didn't really understand the system. I was still kind of learning. Then having gone through the offseason and camp, I really feel like I am learning the system the way that coach wants it to be run. Those guys made plays for me. I was just going through my reads and making sure that I was throwing catchable balls, and guys went out and made plays."

Hogan is also completing passes at NFL starting-caliber rate of 68.4 percent compared to Kizer's 50.9 -- lowest in the NFL. He's completed 26 of 38 attempts for 377 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions for a 104.8 rating. His interception against the Jets came when linebacker Demario Davis crushed him as the ball was released. The errant ball went off Ricardo Louis' hand.

But the game has slowed down considerably for Hogan since he stepped in for Cody Kessler last season and rushed for 104 yards in a loss to the Bengals.

"Even when I played last year, I feel that the game had slowed down just from the preseason,'' he said. "Then this year, it slowed down so much. Just those reps in camp and in the preseason, the more reps you get, the more you kind of see everything.

"When I was out there, I felt like I was seeing everything. I felt confident. It is just football at the end of the day. You have to be efficient, get the ball to your guys, get the ball out of your hands and make it easy on the offensive line. That is what I was trying to do."

A dual-threat QB, Hogan can also run the read-option.

"He did a good job of surveying the field and getting the ball to the man that was supposed to have the ball,'' said Thomas. "Running the zone read stuff, he's very good at running with the football, and he's very good at reading the defense and reading that defensive end ..."He did a good job just with the general operations. For a guy to have to step in there in the middle of the game, he did a really nice job.''

Kizer lost in job in large part because of turnovers. He's committed 11 already, including a league-high nine interceptions. The Browns lead the NFL with five turnovers inside the red zone this season.

Kizer is also last in the NFL -- by far -- with a 49.5 rating. Jackson said this week that it was hard for Kizer, the NFL's youngest quarterback, to try to elevate the play of a sub-par receiving corps.

"It will benefit him tremendously because he'd get a chance to get a breather and take a look at it from a different lens and not from that pressure,'' Jackson said after the Jets game.

"I don't look at what has happened to him as, 'Oh man, he has regressed or he is not doing this or he is not doing that.' I don't see that. I see a young man who is going through the process of trying to become a good quarterback in this league with a young football team. He is trying to help carry it, and that's tough.''

The Browns have three games before their bye week, in Houston, at home against Tennessee and in London against the Vikings, and will likely start Hogan at least until then.