Cleveland Browns: When should Johnny Manziel start?

I have gone on the record and continually defended the point that Josh McCown should be the starter for the Cleveland Browns. Basically, McCown should be out there until Johnny Manziel is ready to be and no team performance issues or artificial deadlines make him more capable to play now if the goal is for him to succeed in the long term. The two natural follow-up questions I have gotten in response to that are ‘why isn’t he ready?’ and ‘what does he need to be able to do before he is ready?’, so I will attempt to answer both from the perspective of a coach.

Manziel’s rookie year in the league will go down as one of the worst in NFL history. Between what teammates said about him, how he performed in practice and the embarrassment against the Cincinnati Bengals, the year was a complete waste. The discussion was that Manziel was a complete waste of a pick and would never succeed.

It ultimately led to Manziel going to rehab and making a genuine change in his life, refocusing on bettering himself and putting himself in the best position to succeed on the football field. He has gotten substantially better and gone from looking completely lost his rookie year to looking like a quarterback, which is a big step in the right direction, even if he is still raw and still learning.

Aug 20, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) throws a pass during the fourth quarter of a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

So to answer the question of how I know that Manziel is still in the early stages of his development, let’s take a look at the offense with him in there against the Titans and Jets as opposed to Josh McCown against the Jets and the Raiders.

With McCown in at quarterback, the Browns were more aggressive with the passing game and used far more varied ways of attacking the opponent. The only drive McCown played in before leaving injured, he completed five passes out of 8 attempts on a 17 play drive. The other 50 minutes of the game when Manziel came in, he threw the ball just 24 times, completing 13 of them, despite being down the entire second half.

Meanwhile, in their loss to the Raiders, McCown threw the ball 49 times, which was definitely not the plan as it was drawn up, but became what they had to do out of necessity to try to come back and win. As much as they want to win running the football, it has been terrible and they trust McCown to execute the pass plays, even if he is inconsistent.

Against the Titans, Manziel threw only 15 passes, completing eight of them. A criticism brought up after the game was that the Browns got extremely conservative when they had a lead, almost sitting on the clock. That is not wrong but it was not necessarily by design.

The key here is offensive coordinator John DeFilippo and staff believes in McCown’s understanding of the playbook and knowing he can run the plays as called. Against the Raiders, the Browns were aggressive, coming out in a number of empty formations with just the offensive line up front to protect. McCown was tasked with making quick decisions and finding the open man, which did not always pan out and he obviously missed a number of throws he should not have. None of this is a commentary to suggest McCown is good. He simply knows the playbook.

To compare, whether it was down to the Jets or up on the Titans, it was pretty clear the Browns felt hamstrung in their options calling plays. Whereas McCown ran out of some empty formations, Manziel tended to be running plays with far more protection, be in the form of tight ends or backs, limiting the number of receivers he could focus on and throw the ball while having more blocking up front. Additionally, as Manziel has had 4 fumbles in the 7 quarters he has played, the move was prudent to try to keep defenders away from Manziel as much as possible.

One good example of this difference in usage and play calling was Duke Johnson. Johnson was never utilized as a receiving threat with Manziel in at quarterback. Against the Raiders, McCown targeted him 7 times, completing 6 of them for 32 yards including a key pass on the last drive of the game for 18 yards. There is a substantially higher number of plays and options McCown can utilize presently.

The play calling distribution is significantly different with McCown in there as opposed to Manziel. With McCown, the Browns called 10 passing plays, 7 run plays against the Jets and 49 pass plays, 14 run plays against the Titans. Obviously the situation forced the obvious disparity in the Titans game, but it is still a clear contrast to Manziel. Against the Jets, Manziel had 29 pass plays called against 21 runs despite being down the entire second half while they called 17 pass plays against 27 runs against the Titans.

This all comes down to trust. The Browns coaching staff likes what they see in Manziel but they know where he is in his development. The running game has been terrible this year, but they still feel compelled to run the ball to do their best to protect Manziel from himself in some respects, which is understandable. So much of coaching is giving up control that they have to feel as comfortable as humanly possible that they are giving it up to the right players in the right situations.

Despite the fact that the coaching staff, particularly Flip, feels somewhat constricted in their playcalling with Manziel, they do trust him in what he knows. They put him in positions to succeed while allowing him to be himself. For example, the use of bootlegs allows Manziel to use his legs, get him on the move and find open receivers.

Sep 13, 2015; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Cleveland Browns wide receiver Travis Benjamin (11) runs with the ball against the New York Jets during the first half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports

On the last touchdown against the Titans, Manziel’s best moment of his career to date, they did not have a conservative play call necessarily. The play called for a normal drop back pass play; it was only when he felt the pressure from Brian Orakpo that it turned into a situation where he could win with his legs. Nevertheless, Travis Benjamin’s route was designed to be a deep one and he simply adjusted it to work towards Manziel and give him an option. Manziel obviously made a great throw, hitting Benjamin in stride for the touchdown.

In some respects, Manziel has training wheels, but in the plays they know he is comfortable with, they let him be aggressive and use his athleticism to help him, as they should. That is where Manziel is right now, so the question is where does he need to go to be ready to play. Obviously, simply mastering the playbook is job one. He needs to get to the point where the coaching staff can trust him to run the offense and not feel limited in what they can call.

The second part of what Manziel needs to do is learn how to read defenses effectively. This was something he was never asked to do at Texas A&M and is not something that is easy to learn overnight. It takes time spent in the film room learning what to look for, different tendencies and just how many different things defenses can do each and every week.

To this point, Manziel’s accuracy and anticipation have made him effective in dealing with man coverage. As illustrated by the deep passes to Benjamin but certainly there are other examples, Manziel has the ability to punish teams when he has the time and his receivers get open. He still makes mistakes as he did with the interception he threw against the Jets but he is equipped to be a good quarterback against straight man.

It is more difficult to diagnose zone coverages and combo coverages that use man and zone concepts. Now add in the blitz. That makes things a lot more complicated, especially when the quarterback is trying to simply work on executing the play being called. Which look should the quarterback check to an audible in? This team’s is effective at disguising their coverages. The next may use late shifts to try to confuse the read. It is a lot to learn as a young quarterback, especially one just four months removed from rehab.

And everything I just pointed out can be learned, processed on the quarterback’s individual time. Learning the playbook, watching the film to see how it should be executed against various defensive looks and trying to improve reading the defenses. One of the complaints I see is that Manziel cannot learn from watching Josh McCown. Well, he does not have to learn from McCown. He can watch film of anyone and work to learn these concepts.

This is all before they go out to the practice field. Obviously, Manziel gets opportunities to execute and expand his playbook and make Flip feel confident in him in practice. Between diagnosing defensive looks, making the right reads, checking into the right audibles and just executing the plays, the coaching staff will feel better and better about him playing.

The concept of simply putting Manziel out there and seeing what he can do is something you do in practice – not in games. With the amount of preparation, work and planning that goes into a game each week, the idea of just throwing something out there in a game is so counter intuitive to what the job demands of those who do it. That is not including the amount of work put into the weeks and months of the offseason.

When people suggest that playing McCown now is a panic move, it is the opposite. The panic move is bailing on a plan three weeks into a season without compelling evidence (an injury or meteoric improvement by a player). Throwing all of the preparation and work done out the window and hoping for the best. That is either panic or admitting that the plan developed was woefully incapable of working. In either scenario, it is not a good situation for the staff or the team and short of compelling evidence , it is not terribly realistic.

The other part of this is simply understanding that coaches coach to win. People cite job security and there is a part of that, but when it comes right down to it, that is the job. From youth all the way to the NFL, a coach is given a roster of players and an opponent and expected to do the best job possible to win as well as doing what is best for the team.

A fan might say that the Browns cannot win this season, but the coach and locker room cannot buy into that logic. Their collective goal is to get better and win, regardless of the situation. Until Manziel is ready, he is not the best option to put out there, so their best chance to win is McCown. And at least for the time being, they are alive and well for contention as much as fans and media will dismiss it.

Dec 21, 2014; Charlotte, NC, USA; Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine on the sidelines in the first quarter at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

When an ill prepared quarterback is put into play, the quarterback will do their best given the situation until they get hit. After they take a few shots, they will start trying to survive instead and avoid getting hit of trying to execute the plays as called. Quarterback, in many ways, can be counter intuitive to survival. Stepping into throws when a defender is bearing down on them, stepping up in the pocket as opposed to bailing out to try to avoid pressure, looking at receivers down field instead of the oncoming pass rush. The more hits, the more bad habits can be reinforced and the result can be a shellshocked quarterback that is ultimately ruined.

Unless people believe that Manziel went from wasted pick and non quarterback to being ready to play now all by himself, the coaching staff has to have at least had a small impact on it, even if it is only providing him the support needed for him to find his own way. The same people that have helped Manziel find his way back into being a potential starting quarterback are saying he is not currently ready. They see him everyday and know exactly where he is in his development. Manziel’s success is incredibly important, if not critical to their own success. If they believe he is better than McCown, there is no reason to believe he would not be playing. Now.

Lastly, all of the talk of fans, ticket sales, excitement and anything along those lines is simply noise. Coaches do not think in those terms. The ones that do are doomed. Coaches think in terms of getting better, putting the best team out there and trying to win. Putting a player out there, quarterback or not, because of the fans is coaching suicide. Winning sells tickets and if they make the right decisions, play good football, that will take care of itself. There is no flimsier, sillier argument in regards to the football part of the organization than this one. It is not and should not be a consideration at all.

The best thing that Mike Pettine and his staff can do is do right by Johnny Manziel, putting him in the best position to succeed. To this point, they have between supporting him through rehab and allowing him to find his way as a quarterback. There is no perfect situation to put him into, but there is a base level of skill and knowledge he has to have to be able to function. Failing that, the coaching staff is basically putting a kid into oncoming traffic and expecting it to produce a positive result.

None of this makes McCown a good quarterback, but it does illustrate why they should opt for him now and keep working with Manziel to get him to a point where he can take the field and get the most benefit from the snaps he takes while not holding the team back from competing. When he is ready, Manziel’s talent should make it pretty clear he is the best option at the quarterback for the position.

Next: 2015 NFL Playoff Picture: Week 3

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