Cleveland Browns: All Eyes On Johnny Manziel

Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel opened training camp a bit earlier than teammates this week. You did not hear about it unless you follow certain social media accounts, however, because it did not involve Manziel riding an inflatable swan inside of a pool, nor did it have anything to do with the quarterback being at a bar or a club. Manziel was not a disruptive force inside of the locker room of the Browns, and he did not do anything to cause beat reporters to criticize his work on the field.

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Manziel merely threw a football around with some local children on Tuesday.

The 22-year old who is not going by the nickname Johnny Football these days surprised a group of kids at an event organized by the Cleveland Clinic. Manziel’s first recorded passes of the summer were a bit wobbly — understandable since many were underhand tosses — and he took time to interact with the youngsters on the hot field. The appearance made by who is the most-recognized player on the Browns did not register a blip on the local media radar, but that lack of attention is about to rapidly come to an end.

Manziel’s unofficial start to his second professional training camp began earlier in the summer when he spent some time working with former head coach Jon Gruden. The nature of those sessions have thus far remained private. It is no secret that the ESPN Monday Night Football personality is a massive fan of Manziel, as Gruden has praised Manziel on multiple occasions. It has also been reported that the coach even told former employers the Oakland Raiders to draft the Texas A&M product.

The jaunt to Gruden’s real quarterback camp was the latest positive step taken by Manziel since his disastrous rookie campaign. Manziel completed a long stint at a rehabilitation center, reportedly for alcohol addiction (he has not yet spoken about the matter), during the winter months.

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He traded in his downtown Cleveland apartment for a home in the suburbs. His renewed dedication to the Browns and to being a starting quarterback in the NFL has been praised by multiple teammates and by others within the organization. The perception is that Manziel is ahead of where he was as a QB a year ago.

All of that is well and good. Those tidbits are also worth absolutely nothing moving forward. Everything that Manziel does on the field in training camp is going to be scrutinized and picked apart by anybody watching who has a smart phone in his possession. Some will say that he has improved even if that is not the case. Others will point out flaws that may not actually exist. Get ready for the circus, Browns fans, because it has again come to Berea despite the fact that Manziel has not done anything to warrant such attention since last December.

Things were different a year ago. While Brian Hoyer was a veteran journeyman quarterback coming off of two successful starts and a torn ACL in the summer of 2014, Manziel was a phenomenon who brought the hype of Tim Tebow and physical attributes similar to those had by Drew Brees. Manziel was still Johnny Football at the time, electrifying fans simply by stepping out onto the field in shorts. That his Browns debut was preceded by numerous publicized incidents that involved Manziel “living his life” as he put it made him an even bigger star in the eyes of some.

We have now lived through the madness, and we know how the story of the 2014 Browns ends. Hoyer started out well before reverting back to the ways of a career backup, Manziel was given the start against the Cincinnati Bengals in December when he was not ready for that opportunity, Manziel was set up to fail thanks to a terrible game plan, and he ended the campaign as an injured spectator in the doghouse of head coach Mike Pettine. All of that can now officially become ancient history with the kickoff of Browns training camp.

Things should theoretically be much simpler for the Browns this summer. The club acquired veteran Josh McCown over the offseason to serve as the quarterback of the now and also the mentor and tutor for Manziel that Hoyer never was during the only year of that non-existent relationship. McCown, happy to be on a roster and making NFL money at this point of his career, has said all of the right things about being an ultimate team-player willing to help Manziel and others inside of the locker room of the Browns since putting pen to paper on his Cleveland contract.

It took all of two meetings with the press for Pettine to verbally toss a grenade into what was, on paper, a solid plan for the 2015 Browns, for Manziel and for the future of the team. Pettine has twice, when speaking with reporters, indicated that Manziel could still win the starting gig before the end of August arrives. Whatever he was trying to achieve by making such comments is a mystery to all but to the coach, but what Pettine has done is again put the spotlight on the young man who is supposed to be a backup and a work in progress who is learning the pro game from the background.

Pettine has unintentionally or intentionally opened up a public quarterback competition between McCown and Manziel that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. Stories of Manziel struggling to adapt to a brand new offense being installed by a new coordinator and new quarterbacks coach, the types of setbacks any second-year QB would experience in such a situation, will instead be that much bigger all because Pettine dropped even a hint that Manziel could overtake McCown atop the depth chart of the Browns.

What’s done is done. Pettine has said what he has said when he has made those remarks, and he had his reasons for doing so. Perhaps the man who is also in the second year of this particular NFL career wants to light a fire under Manziel, or maybe Pettine wants to immediately throw the quarterback into the deep end to see if Manziel sinks or swims. It has been made clear that Manziel is not your typical second option hoped to be a backup for all of 2015, and thus the eyes of all detractors and fans will be on the Heisman Trophy winner for a second straight summer.

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