Hoyer talks about keeping his job, while Manziel works on taking it

Regardless of whether the Browns mean it when they claim that veteran quarterback Brian Hoyer has a big lead over rookie Johnny Manziel in the “competition” (Jets style or otherwise) to win the starting job, the question of which man deserves to lead the team will be determined on the practice field, based on how the other players perceive their abilities.
So on a day when Hoyer talked about keeping his job, Manziel may have taken a big step toward taking it.
Sure, Manziel threw three interceptions on the day. But it was a quintessential Johnny Football play that had everyone buzzing after the OTA session.
As explained by Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Manziel rolled to the right, threw left across his body, and hit tight end Jordan Cameron 30 yards down the field.
“Pretty sweet, huh?” receiver Nate Burleson said of the play. “It was nice, man. I like to see Johnny make big plays. When a quarterback gets into a rhythm and gets a little confidence, his chin pokes up and his chest sticks out a little bit more and they play better and when he gets into a rhythm, he’s a special athlete.
“He’s hard to stop. He’s doing good, man. I like what I’m seeing so far out of Johnny Football.”
“He put it exactly where he needed to put it,” Cameron said of the throw. “It got people going a little. It was exciting. I know guys reacted. That’s what he does. He makes people react. It’s an emotional thing when they watch him play. He brings a lot of energy and that’s his game.”
If enough of their teammates agree with the assessments from Burleson and Cameron, it will be hard for the powers-that-be to open the season with Hoyer at the helm. Of course, one of their teammate who would vote for Hoyer is, well, Hoyer.
“You never want to see someone else doing your job,” said Hoyer, who is still recovering from a torn ACL suffered last season. “That’s the biggest thing for me. I feel I’m ready and I know a lot of people who come back from this injury talk about the mental aspect. I think I’ve conquered that months ago. As the competitor in me I want to be out there with my guys, calling the plays and running them.”
Come September, when the Browns start the season in Pittsburgh against the Steelers, there’s a good chance that it will be Manziel calling the plays and running them, especially if he keeps running them like he did on Tuesday.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
AP Photo: Houston Chronicle, Karen Warren

Report: Johnny Manziel won’t fall past Browns at No. 4

Now things are starting to heat up.
With the NFL Draft three days away, the quarterback intrigue that any draft needs is kicking in.
Chris Mortensen of ESPN just reported that he expects the Browns to pick Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel at No. 4, if he’s still there.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that he won’t be, which is perhaps why the Browns are looking at tackles.
While taking a blocker fourth and a quarterback at No. 26 (or moving up to get one), it isn’t the flashy play.
The interest in Manziel seems obvious for the Browns, who need some spark as much as they need a quarterback. Frankly, it’s the kind of splash move we’ve been waiting for owner Jimmy Haslam to make.
The fact he wasn’t able to land Chip Kelly or Jim Harbaugh to coach his team only makes the need for a premier quarterback more acute.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Darin Gantt
AP Photo: Houston Chronicle, Karen Warren

Johnny Manziel won’t say if he was drinking at the Manning camp

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel declined to say whether he was drinking alcohol over the weekend at the Manning Passing Academy, but he says the reason he left the camp early was “absolutely not” because he was hungover.
In an interview on SportsCenter, Manziel was asked directly if he was drinking alcohol during his time at the camp, and he answered, “I’m not going into details about what happened at the Manning camp. We had social events every night.”
Manziel said his early departure from the Manning camp was a “mutual decision” between himself and the Manning Passing Academy organizers, and he said that Peyton Manning and Eli Manning did not tell him to leave early. He did not say whether Archie Manning told him to leave early, but he did acknowledge that he overslept and missed a morning meeting.
“I made a mistake and didn’t wake up in time when I should have, and that’s pretty much the end of that,” Manziel said. “Missing the meeting wasn’t anything due to the night prior. It wasn’t anything involved in that. It was just simply my phone died, I overslept, I woke up the next morning whenever I did, went and talked to them and it was kind of a mutual decision to get home and get some time to relax.”
Manziel has earned a reputation for hard partying during his college career, and that reputation may affect his stock in the 2014 NFL draft, which Manziel is expected to enter. Manziel said he’s not going to apologize for the way he lives his life.
“I’m still 20 years old, I’m still a sophomore in college, I’m still going to do things that everybody in college does and I’m going to continue to enjoy my life. Hopefully people don’t hold me to a higher standard than that,” Manziel said.
Manziel is under the legal drinking age, but most college students drink before they turn 21, and Manziel is entitled to live his life however he wants. At the same time, NFL teams are entitled to decide that if they’re going to spend a high draft pick on a franchise quarterback, they want it to be a straight arrow like Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III, and not a guy who oversleeps, misses meetings, declines to say if he was drinking the night before, gets in trouble in connection with bar fights, and generally seems like he has a lot of growing up to do.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Michael David Smith
(AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Karen Warren)