Johnny Fracaso

I'm sure fans outside of Cleveland are really tired of hearing about the Browns. Cleveland fans are not. To begin the off-season, the news was very negative due to the firing of Chud and the removal of the front office. Then there was the fact that they still didn't have a QB, the owner's side company Flying J getting into legal troubles, and the fact that they only won four games. Again. I liked coach Chud, but looking back at it, firing him was the right move. Pettine fits Cleveland. I don't know what a Brown is supposed to look like, but Pettine looks like a Brown. He brings an aggressive style of play, oozes confidence, and has a good plan in place. I love some of the things that he says about the team. More importantly, he's a good disciplinarian who is respected by the players. Plus Chud didn't believe in halftime adjustments. Wonder why the Browns had so many leads in the second half only to be blown. The other teams made halftime adjustments.

Despite all the criticism the Browns took, they got the right people in place. Aside from coach Pettine, Ray Farmer has done a heck of a job as GM. I love the moves he has been able to pull off in free agency. T.J Ward seemed to want to get out (he was a little offended at the fact that he didn't get the franchise tag; that honor went to Alex Mack, which was a good choice) of Cleveland so Farmer let him. D'Qwell Jackson also had had enough. Can't blame him. Good luck to him. So after losing two really good players, Farmer lured Donte Whitner and Karlos Dansby over. Great players. He also pulled the trigger on Ben Tate, Nate Burleson, and Andrew Hawkins. Post-draft he grabbed Miles Austin. Honestly, I feel like he's the right guy for this job.

That's not to say he's perfect. He's got a little ways to go in terms of drafting. In free agency he gets an A. Drafting grade would be more like a C-minus. After skipping out on Sammy Watkins (in light of the Josh Gordon suspension), the Browns traded down and then up again to grab Justin Gilbert. Okay, he's a really good player, but passing on Watkins and then trading back up after you've traded down wasn't a great move. Next, they trade up to get Johnny Manziel. Bad move, but more on this later. After that, they grab Bitonio who is going to be a really solid OL. They also grabbed Kirksey out of Iowa...not really needed and not a great player. Then they traded up again to grab a RB in West. Finally, they took another CB in Desir who was a great value. He may beat out Buster Skrine for their nickel and dime packages.

Manziel, Kirksey, not drafting a WR at all, and giving up picks to trade up are what give Farmer a bad draft grade. They picked up a bunch of guys after the draft, some undrafted free agents like Connor Shaw, but that is more free agency than draft. So again, points in free agency for Farmer. In such a deep WR draft, though, one should've been picked up. Farmer seems to have had plans of getting Miles Austin, though. Okay, I'll give a pass on that one especially considering he nabbed Burleson and Hawkins earlier. When Gordon does come back, that's a potent receiving core.

Getting to the purpose of this article: Johnny Manziel. Not only did Farmer draft him, but he gave up picks to get him. Manziel has a lot of college accolades, his biggest one coming from beating Alabama which won him the Heisman trophy. He has a Tebow-like following because of his success at Texas A&M. He seems like a great QB with a lot of potential in the NFL. He may become a good QB somewhere down the line, but right now he is not. I hope I'm wrong about all of this.

Let's take a closer look at Manziel. He plays in the SEC, which is great. Out of the six toughest defenses he faced (Alabama twice, LSU twice, Florida and Auburn), he went 1-5. Not only did he have a horrible record against them, but he had some bad performances. He never "carved up the Alabama defense" as a lot of reporters say. A lot of his plays in that game were thanks to Mike Evans, arguably the best WR in the draft. Facing college teams with the most NFL players, he did poorly. What will happen when he faces teams with only NFL players? Red flag.

Manziel is a running quarterback. A lot of what people say make him special is his ability to scramble and make plays. Again, a lot of that credit also goes to a good O-line with NFL players (Matthews went top ten) and a great WR in Evans. He's small and took some big hits in college, some which knocked him out for a drive or two. If he scrambles the way he did in college in the NFL, he's going to get popped. If he's smart, he won't scramble as much as he did in college, which will take away from some of the "magic" he apparently has. Red flag.

As a side note, the NFL is where running quarterbacks go to die. Vince Young (ironically, cut by browns), Michael Vick, RG3, Tim Tebow, Troy Smith, and Dennis Dixon were all running QB's in college. How many of them are great quarterbacks today? How many games lost due to injury do they have? Even though I'm a Buckeyes fan,  Braxton Miller will have the same fate unless he learns how to be more consistent in throwing the ball. Well Aaron, what about Cam Newton and Terrelle Pryor? Cam can actually throw the ball, although his statistics have really gone down once NFL defenses got tape on him. And Pryor, really? He had a few good games in Oakland and that's about it. So did Tebow and Ryan Fitzpatrick. A couple years ago, the Bills went on a big run to start the season. Fitzpatrick was picked up in all fantasy leagues because he was doing so well. I picked him up only to trade him because I knew that once teams got some tape on him, they'd stop him. That's exactly what happened. Same with Tebow and Cam. Despite being a running QB, you have to be able to throw the ball. Manziel can throw the ball better than those guys, but that's not what makes him great. That's why he gets a red flag on that.

Colleges tend to tailor their playbooks to their players, especially QB's. Cam didn't have much of a playbook because he couldn't handle it. He plays in the SEC and let's just say those players aren't the brightest. To the contrary, Andrew Luck had a big playbook because he played at Stanford where they can only recruit smart players. At Texas A&M, the Aggies had a one-read system for Manziel. This means that Manziel would look down one receiver, and if that receiver wasn't open, Manziel had to wing it. There were numerous times when Manziel missed a wide-open receiver on his first read. He wasn't using his progressions which is exactly what you need to do in the NFL. You also need to be able to read a defense and react to what they show you. This is why Manning, Brady, and Brees are great. This built in his instinct to run the football when one player wasn't open. Now once Gordon comes back from suspension, it may actually work out because Gordon is that good. Until then, this is a huge red flag.

There are statistics out there that measure how well a QB does during certain parts of the game. The great QB's don't diminish in the second half. Brady actually plays better in the second half. No wonder he's one of the best. Manziel actually drops off progressively over the game. This is probably heavily due to his lack of size, but I think a lot of that is mental. I don't want a QB who is at his worst in the fourth quarter. Big red flag.

We can't forget about the Johnny Football circus he brings to town. From his attitude to his partying and his network, Manziel has quite a following. He is exciting, polarizing, and interesting. This gets you a circus. I don't want to have to deal with off-the-field issues, especially from my quarterback. I'm not so worried about the national media or the reaction he'll get from fans across the country. What worries me comes from within. Let's say Hoyer starts the season at QB. The minute he throw an interception, loses a game, or any number of unfortunate events happen with him involved, some Cleveland fans will start to chant "we want Johnny" to start. That's why Denver got rid of Tebow. Even the Jets figured it out. The fact is Johnny isn't ready, and Hoyer gives us the best chance to win this year. So unless Hoyer has a horrible year, Manziel and the circus need to understand that the bench is the best place for him. His circus earns him a red flag.

I know it's early, but Wednesday Farmer was quoted saying Hoyer had a "substantial margin" over Thigpen and Manziel. I admit that I've been a Hoyer guy since his second start of last year. Lots of smart NFL analysts are also Hoyer guys, which makes me feel validated. I think he has good training under Brady and Belichick, he fits the offensive system in Cleveland, and he's been a Browns fan his whole life. How would it feel if you were the starting QB of your favorite NFL team growing up? Hoyer also won 3 of the 4 games the Browns won last season. He had a great comeback victory on the road. He is the most accurate passer on the roster and he's got a lot to prove. If he fails, I still think it's worth taking a shot on him.

Why didn't I want Manziel drafted? Five red flags. You have to give me something other than "he wins games." Tebow won games, I don't want him as my quarterback (and neither does any other NFL team). Johnny didn't win the big games he played in: 1-5 against the best defenses he faced. Those are the types of defenses he'll face in the NFL. Any other QB and I would have been happy, but we took Johnny Manziel. That deserves an F grade.