Johnny Manziel: Surprised?

First, I kind of think it was Josh McCown who told Mike that Johnny should start-not the other way around.  

Last week, all these pundits talking about "tanking" if Johnny starts...

Most of these guys hardly pay any attention to the Browns, and just re-state whatever they hear the most.  

Tanking?  How ignorant.  It's like the second half vs. Cincinnati closed the book on a second year quarterback with three career starts!  Are you kidding me?  You finally saw what you expected to see for one half of one game, so you clap your hands together and say "Glad that's out of the way.  So which quarterback do we draft?"

As I often say, I was ticked off when the Browns drafted Manziel.  Not because he was too small, but because he'd need to learn the position in the NFL almost from scratch, and because I'm not sure he even had a playbook in college.

But once they had him, I retained my doubts, but kept an open mind.

After his atrocious performances as a rookie, I was even more skeptical, but:

You don't write off a quarterback after one season.  You don't go overboard criticizing him.

Lazy check.  Confused check.  Immature check.  But give me a break, now it's arm strength, accuracy, and intelligence?  In a league featuring Russell Wilson and Drew Brees Manziel can't overcome his size?

Likewise, immature guys grow up.  Lazy guys sometimes hit the books after they flunk once.  And nobody who ever scouted or met him questioned his intelligence.

Josh McCown thinks Johnny is doing fine.  I agree.

He is still very inexperienced.  No reasonable person can expect him to be perfect at this point in his career.  Nobody with a brain will start chanting for McCown as soon as he has a bad quarter or half.

And he will.  Defensive coordinators have enough film on him now.  He's going to see a whole bunch of stuff he's never seen before.

But now he's got six games.  He should be measured not by his overall performance, but by how well he plays the last couple games vs. his first two.

Nor will he be as good then as he will be when he returns next season.

It's important to factor this in: Both Josh and Johnny have done what they've done with undersized receivers, a negligible running game, and a crappy defense.  And it's impressive, do you understand?

The coaches and yes, Ray Farmer, know this, even if Les Levine and other MMs can't grasp it.

I do believe, now, that the Browns won't need to take a quarterback in the next draft.  I now believe that Johnny Manziel will overcome, yet again.  And that Josh Gordon still exists, and is still under contract.

If Johnny Manziel (see I keep repeating "Johnny Manziel" in case he searches "Johnny Manziel") were to listen to my advice, I'd suggest that he talk to Wilson and Brees.  These other two liliputions could give him a lot of pointers about operating in the pocket in the land of giants.

Facing the Ravens off the bye is perfect, because they're not very good at all.

During the off time, I hope Flip and Mike tweak the offense a little to help Johnny out.  He's proving that he can succeed from the pocket.  He needs to stay there the majority of the time, not just because that's how you succeed most consistently and remain healthy, but because he needs the reps to make it second-nature.  But he should run around on purpose every third or fourth pass play too, where he can do some serious damage.  And actually win actual games.

In conclusion, Mike Pettine I'm glad you finally listened to Josh and me.

Go Johnny go.

Now read this carefully: Glance over this blog and try to find the words "great, best, playoffs, Hall of Fame, elite, or franchise".

I wrote what I wrote. Nothing more.