Johnny Manziel made a confession Wednesday during an interview on “The Dan Patrick Show,” one that might win points for candor but might not impress NFL teams enough to give him a second chance in the league. The 2012 Heisman Trophy winner questioned the Cleveland Browns’ decision to draft him in 2014, seeming to suggest that his washout with them after two seasons marred by embarrassing off-the-field excesses and a lack of dedication to football was inherently their fault.
“If Cleveland did any of their homework, they would have known I wasn’t a guy who came in every day and watched film,” Manziel said. “I was a guy that really didn’t know the X’s and O’s of football.”
He went on to add that he didn’t understand the pro offense and that the Browns had no one to help him.
Given that NFL coaches really like guys who watch film and know X’s and O’s, as Jim Mora’s assessment of Josh Rosen illustrated, the admission by the former Texas A&M quarterback might cost Manziel. Coaches prefer players who know the playbook by heart and don’t ask questions.
Against that backdrop, Manziel is trying to show that he can regain the form he displayed as “Johnny Football.” Only 25, the newly married Manziel has sought treatment for alcoholism and bipolar disorder. He also was involved in a 2016 domestic violence incident involving a former girlfriend, one in which he reached a plea deal with prosecutors in Texas. Those were the low points, when his father worried that he wouldn’t live to see his 24th birthday.
Manziel has been working out regularly, studying with quarterback guru George Whitfield. As scouts and representatives of all 32 NFL teams watched, he recently worked out with Texas A&M athletes at the school’s pro day and is playing in a spring league. And if a return to the NFL doesn’t pan out, there’s always the Canadian Football League, where his rights are owned by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
In one way, Manziel wasn’t exactly breaking news with his X’s and O’s admission Wednesday. After the Browns drafted him in 2014, MMQB’s Peter King reported that Manziel never was given an actual playbook at Texas A&M, instead running a group of plays given to him from week to week. So he had a lot to learn about running an NFL offense — one that was far more complicated than anything he ran in College Station — when the Browns gave him their playbook after the draft, and apparently he didn’t spend much time doing so.
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