With the Browns in a tailspin at quarterback, it may be wise for Cleveland to look at the bad-boy maverick of college football, Johnny Manziel in the 2014 NFL Draft.
Thanks to the ineffectiveness, ineptitude and all-around horrid play of Brandon Weeden, Cleveland will now be looking to draft it’s fourth first-round quarterback in the NFL Draft (Tim Couch, Brady Quinn and Weeden) since their return to the NFL in 1999. What makes the fore-mentioned stat even more mind-boggling is that whichever quarterback the Browns do choose next May will likely be their 21st different starter and 42nd change under center.
That being said, while I was a Weeden supporter earlier this year, his epic-worthy bust-like play makes it hard to make any excuses, nor justify why he deserves another shot with either the Browns—or in the NFL.
With the 2014 NFL Draft expected to have Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater, Clemson’s Tajh Boyd and possible underclassmen in Oregon’s Marc Mariota and the fore-mentioned Manziel, the Browns have plenty of options to choose from.
This being the Browns, the question is, will they get it right for once?
While many Browns fans are hoping to land the uber-talented Mariota, or even package both first-round picks to Jacksonville and select Bridgewater, Hundley may be also available at the Browns projected draft slot, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner from Texas A&M makes the most sense.
This writer is going to play devil’s advocate and get behind the possibility of Cleveland selecting the most polarizing figure in sports not named LeBron James, and while Manziel has had various off-the-field run-ins, if Cleveland is serious about wanting to build a real contender and identify it’s franchise quarterback, then Manziel is the man.
The 6’1, 210-pounder is a proven winner on the biggest stage and has played in the toughest conference in college football in the SEC. It takes a special player to turn Nick Saban’s two-time defending national champion Alabama defense into his own personal game of Madden in passing for 717 yards, tossing seven touchdowns and two interceptions.
Mind you, this was against a Alabama defense with top-ten first round talent and not the likes of Georgia State and Rice. That being said, Manziel is once again the top player in college football in terms of talent, “it” factor, mobility, improvisation, decent arm strength and pocket awareness that both Weeden and newly-minted starter—and sacrificial lamb—Jason Campbell could only dream about.
For the year, Manziel has completed 73.3 percent of his passes for 2,289 yards, 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions and rushed 85 times for 486 yards and six touchdowns. is he perfect, no?
Could the bad-boy Manziel be the elusive franchise quarterback that Cleveland desperately needs? Possibly.
Why Manziel and the Browns are a perfect fit for each other is that Manziel has proven experience against top-level competition and brings all the intangibles that Cleveland sorely lacks at the QB spot and Cleveland gets it’s franchise quarterback to build around and a much-needed injection of bad-boy edginess and relevance.
Many fans will choose to nit-pick over his height, of being too small and nimble to played in the rugged and physical AFC North, last time I check, Russell Wilson and Drew Brees who are both barely six feet in cleats on a good day, are the patron saints of vertically-challenged NFL quarterback hopefuls.
Thanks to the current success of both Brees and Wilson, the age of the six-foot-plus passer is coming to an end and the age of more mobile and smaller quarterbacks is in vogue, which makes Manziel to Cleveland a no-brainer.
What would be the hypothetical ideal scenario for Manziel in Cleveland is to sit behind Brian Hoyer for a year and learn the nuances of the NFL game instead of starting immediately. Then again this is Cleveland and the Browns we are talking about here, and the words “ideal” “patience” and “quarterback development” is as foreign as pig Latin to Browns fans.
As much as I love my beloved Browns, Cleveland has a long history of having both a lack of patience in developing quarterbacks and bypassing elite talent for “high-character” guys who are good for the locker room and great in the huddle. While that is great and all, to earn respect in this league, you have to take that respect and learn to develop a rugged and meaner edge to you with a chip on your proverbial shoulder.
And let’s be honest, Cleveland has far too long chosen so many choir boys that they should have their own congregation by now.
Bottom line is that, Cleveland needs to take a chance on a bad boy talent such as Manziel instead of going down it’s usual path of playing it safe, because clearly that hasn’t worked out too well for them since ‘99 now has it?
#JohnnyFootball #Browns #OnlyInCleveland
Robert D. Cobb is the Founder/CEO/Senior Editor-In-Chief Of The Inscriber : Digital Magazine, for questions, comments and concerns email me at [email protected] follow me on Twitter @RC_TheInscriber and follow The Inscriber : Digital Magazine on Twitter at @TheInscriber
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