How Johnny Cleveland Came To Be

How Johnny Cleveland Came To Be

    The 2014 NFL Draft was one for the ages. Talent-wise, it was as deep a draft as we can remember in recent memory. It had the talented beast in Jadeveon Clowney, and it also had the box office attraction in Johnny Manziel. The Clowney mystery was solved really quickly when the Houston Texans took him number 1 overall.

The Johnny Manziel mystery was one that had to be tracked for nearly the entire first round.

It was pretty shocking when the Jacksonville Jaguars took Blake Bortles with the 3^rd overall pick. His rise up the draft boards came well after the season, thanks in large part to the question marks with the other quarterback prospects. Teddy Bridgewater was almost a sure lock to be the first quarterback drafted…until he had a horrific Pro Day. Many people thought Manziel should be the first quarterback off the board (including myself), but a lot of people raised questions about his off the field distractions as well as his ability to throw from within the pocket.

Throughout the first round, one quarterback-needy team after another, including the Texans, Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Titans, and even the Cleveland Browns kept passing on the man who filled the stadium in College Station. When pick number 16 came along and the Dallas Cowboys were on the clock, the nation held its breath. And after the commissioner read off the name Zack Martin (read more about the pick at http://sportstation126.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-draft-pick-heard-around-world.html) for the Cowboys pick, everybody was in frenzy. After the first sixteen picks, nobody took a chance on the exciting Johnny Football.

At this point, the list of quarterback needy teams was getting smaller and it looked more and more than Johnny Manziel had a decent chance of slipping out of the first round.

Until Manziel picked up his phone.

On a radio show Thursday morning, Browns quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains said that Johnny texted him and expressed his strong desire to play for the Browns and how he wished the Browns would just “go get” him.

"We're sitting there and they keep showing Johnny on TV, and Johnny and I are texting and he shoots me a text and he says, 'I wish you guys would come get me. Hurry up and draft me because I want to be there. I want to wreck this league together,'" Loggains said, per The Plain Dealer.

Following that was another eye opener. After general manager Ray Farmer insisted that the owner Jimmy Haslam had nothing to do with the pick, Dowell Loggains said that Haslam told them to “pull the trigger” after he got the text.

The text on Manziel’s fault is not a big deal, and if anything it shows his strong confidence, a trademark that most superstar quarterbacks in today’s game have. Examples of this can be seen by the trash talk of people like Jay Cutler and Phillip Rivers through their careers, or more relatable with Manziel’s situation, how Peyton Manning told the Colts he would kick their butt for the next 20 years if the Colts passed on him. Another draft day story includes Tom Brady, who some have compared Johnny Manziel’s competiveness to, telling the Patriots owner Robert Kraft that drafting him was “the best decision the organization had ever made.”

The only negative part about the text comes from the Browns front office. First of all, if they didn’t have Manziel as a first round grade on their board, a text message should not make them change their ways. A lot of players have confidence in themselves, that doesn’t necessarily mean a team will go spend a first round pick on them.

Also, this could havelong term ramifications. Perhaps the head coach, General Manager, and owner were not all on the same page with this pick. If so, the Browns could mishandle the talented Manziel.

They already seem to be doing just that in my opinion by telling him to “act like a backup.” Any football team, on any level should want every single player preparing themselves and acting like the starter, even if they are on the practice squad. That’s the first point. Secondly, who said Johnny Manziel is the backup? Very rarely in today’s NFL do you see a first round pick completely ride the bench for an entire year. And for what? Brian Hoyer? Hoyer may have learned behind Brady in New England, but he should not be mistaken as Tom Brady. Hoyer has been tossed around the NFL, from a backup in New England, to Pittsburgh, to Arizona, and now with the Browns. He had three formidable games last year before tearing his ACL, but he wasn’t necessarily spectacular, or anything Johnny can’t do.

At the end of the day, Johnny Manziel made it clear to the Browns that he wanted to be in Cleveland (It’s hard to believe any athlete WANTS to be in Cleveland). Maybe his good buddy LeBron James, who started his career in Cleveland, had an influence. Maybe getting to play with a up and coming star like Josh Gordon (which seems unlikely now) was the pull to the Dawg Pound.

We may never know, but all we know is that the box office playmaker is now a Cleveland Brown. Hopefully the organization doesn’t hold him back, because his competitive fire shows us he is ready to unleash on the NFL.