Cleveland, OH (92.3 The Fan) - Former Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel has continued his attempt to reshape the narrative around his time in Cleveland, for better or for worse. Johnny is on a crusade for complete transparency of where he failed, how he failed, and what he has learned from those failures.
In that, the 25 year old went on The Dan Patrick Show and said this "If Cleveland did any of their homework, they would have know known that I was a guy that didn’t come in every day and watch film, I was a guy that didn’t really know the X’s and O’s of football."
Johnny Manziel sounds like a sports talk radio caller calling in about Johnny Manziel while he's on a sports talk radio show.
— Ken Carman (@KenCarman) April 4, 2018Some will read this as deflecting blame, I'm not sure what other people wanted him to do though. He's not going to tell teams he isn't ready. If anything, it sounds like a quarterback who assumed that once he got to the NFL the coaching would improve and the concepts and schemes would be implemented. How was he to know any different? He isn't exempted from blame because once he got there, he didn't adapt, but heading into the NFL it was just a different scenario than what he imagined. His whole life had been built around coaching and people improving him, now he was off to fend for himself.
The former Aggie continued on saying "When I get to Cleveland, I have a quarterback in the room with me that’s not helping me, and it’s not really his job to, but nobody was there helping me go over the X’s and O’s and it was hard and I struggled. Getting on the practice field I lost a lot of confidence after my first couple of days there."
Brian Hoyer isn't responsible for Johnny Manziel to get better, he was trying to navigate his own career. Nobody expects that from him. It is surprising the Browns coaches didn't do enough in Johnny's mind, but then again, some people at that level believe the talent and knowledge should already be there. Not everyone is Hue Jackson with the amount of attention and detail they spend with young QB's to attempt to get them where he wants them to be.
I see successful guys in the NFL and what they do in the offseason and the time that they put in that makes them good players. Guys are good in the NFL because they know film, they study hard, and they work even harder in the offseason.
Johnny didn't know the difference in what makes a quarterback stay at the top ranks for longer than two seasons. He went on to credit Josh McCown in teaching him in his second year, but at that point it was too late.
This isn't a defense of Manziel and everything that has transpired. He put himself into this situation, but there's no doubt that multiple people failed around him if they didn't guide him towards what the NFL would be like. There was some arrogance attached to his initial beliefs, I think this happens for a lot of players. They've always been the best on the field, they've always won, they've never had to WORK to stay at the top. This is what makes the NFL so great though. It doesn't come easy for any of them, and you never hear of a player that achieves long term success cheating the game and not putting the time in. Johnny is trying to put the work in necessary now, only time will tell if he's able to get another chance. He's young enough, it isn't out of the realm of possiblity.
No one will want to hear this but @JManziel2 tape w/CLE is not as bad as you think... I can see why teams are checking in w/ the Heisman Trophy winner after the “buzz” started building after scouts saw him at a few Pro Days...If he handles biz off the field, he’s getting a shot
— Bucky Brooks (@BuckyBrooks) March 30, 2018I don't think this erases his chances in front of the NFL, ultimately it all matters how he looks in the Spring league and wherever he ends up after that, likely the CFL. It'll be a hard upward climb though.
