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Cleveland Browns, Johnny Manziel Getting Over Brian Hoyer Mistake

By Zac Wassink

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Plenty of reasonable football minds believed back in March of 2014 that it was a mistake for the Cleveland Browns to hand over the team’s offense to quarterback Brian Hoyer.

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Those concerns did not exist because Hoyer was a journeyman who had been dumped by multiple franchises and who had never proven himself capable of leading a National Football League offense for any real amount of time, although those realities didn’t help his cause. They were not had by analysts and even some Cleveland fans because Hoyer was coming off of a torn ACL and that he was not at 100 percent in the spring of that year, but his health was admittedly not a plus in his favor.

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To fully understand all that went wrong with Hoyer, Johnny Manziel and the 2014 Browns, one must first appreciate the position Hoyer was in roughly a year and a half ago. Hoyer was staring what could have been the end of his active NFL career, one mostly spent on the sidelines with a backward cap instead of a helmet on his head, right in the face. Nobody could blame Hoyer for seeing a rookie QB as being more competition than a teammate. For Hoyer, the 2014 Browns represented, as far as he knew, his last chance to shine in the NFL.

The Browns were always going to draft a quarterback in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft, and that QB was, despite what some local media members who thought they had inside scoops wanted the public to believe, always going to be Manziel. Those running the franchise at that time — and no, not just owner Jimmy Haslam — had become infatuated with the Texas A&M product and Heisman Trophy winner, so much so that a Browns contingent watched Johnny Football live and in-person at least once in September 2013.

The Hoyer-Manziel relationship starting from day one could be referred to as being “rocky,” but that would suggest that one actually existed in the first place. First-year head coach Mike Pettine even joked about the state of his quarterback room in OTAs when he quipped that Hoyer and Manziel would not be exchanging Christmas cards. Hoyer was not a tutor for a learning student in Manziel. Those two were foes in a battle from the time that Manziel held up his jersey at Radio City Music Hall, and it made for an unsettling situation for the Browns.

The great irony, of course, is that the Browns drafting Manziel is the best thing that has, to date, ever happened for Hoyer’s career. Blake Bortles likely would have snatched the starting gig from Hoyer following training camp and preseason contests. The same can be said about Teddy Bridgewater, the most NFL-ready QB of the rookie class a year ago, and of Derek Carr, who probably possesses a stronger throwing arm in his sleep than Hoyer has ever flashed during a meaningful professional game.

Cleveland instead drafted Manziel, and the rest, so goes the saying, is history.

It is easy to blame Manziel for being the cause of his horrendous rookie campaign. He has done so himself. Manziel was his own worst enemy throughout the final seven months of 2014, looking, to steal his own words, “like a jackass” to the public and to those within the locker room of the Browns. We know, from what he has said and done, that Manziel did not work hard enough in his first pro season, and it is no secret that he was dealing with some matter(s) that landed him in a rehabilitation facility for months over the offseason.

With Manziel playing the role of the main villain of this story, it should not have mattered that Hoyer never took the college phenom under his wing; right? One would think so, except just about every sign out there points the other direction. Veteran players and respected leaders on the roster of the Browns such as Joe Haden and Karlos Dansby had high praise for Manziel during Super Bowl week appearances this past January. The loudest uproar for Hoyer to be named the team savior at that time came from local fans who loved that the QB who backed into victories was from a Cleveland suburb.

We are, with each figurative layer that is uncovered, obtaining a better grasp on all that occurred behind the scenes within the Browns in 2014. Anybody who has been paying even a little attention to Cleveland practice sessions and press obligations can surmise that Pettine prefers his current quarterback situation to that of a year ago. Veteran Josh McCown is, if reporters and fans are to believe the words spoken by offensive and defensive players, the hero for the Browns that Hoyer never was at any point last summer or last fall.

This is not the first time that McCown has somewhat surprisingly won over a locker room so quickly. One does not need to be a pro football scout to know that Jay Cutler is, on paper, a better overall quarterback than McCown, and yet it was McCown who became an instant hit and not just a fill-in for the injured Cutler back on 2013 in part because McCown was (allegedly) a more-likeable teammate. McCown did not have agendas nor did he make enemies on or off the field. He merely did his job, and the same holds true for him in August 2015.

May 26, 2015; Berea, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) during organized team activities at the Cleveland Browns training facility. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

National media members flocked to Berea and to Cleveland practices last week leading up to this past Friday’s scrimmage, and a popular opinion that emerged from those individuals that was voiced on radio show Cleveland Browns Daily and in private conversations is that Manziel would be a better player and the starting quarterback of the Browns this summer had the team signed McCown and released Hoyer in the spring of 2014. To think what might have been for the Browns had that scenario played out.

A lot had to happen to get those involved to this point. Manziel had to get himself right personally and become truly dedicated to being a starting quarterback. Check. Manziel had to show real improvements on the field. Done. Manziel needed to be surrounded by teammates who are more invested in the overall improvement of the now and future of the club than they are looking ahead at what may be for them down the road. Mission accomplished. Better late than never.

What’s done is done. Manziel cannot relive 2014 and right all of the many mistakes he made, nor can the Browns exchange Hoyer for McCown as they should have done. While Hoyer has been given another chance at NFL life and a chance to start, this time with the Houston Texans, the Browns have a well-liked veteran in McCown running the first-team offense and serving as the mentor for Manziel that the second-year pro never had in his first season, one who will hopefully allow the project to continue to blossom as a backup for the foreseeable future.

Next: Ray Farmer, Mike Pettine On the Hot Seat

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