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Browns Notes: Manziel, Hoyer, Gordon

August 20th, 2014 at 3:23pm CST by Rob DiRe

Although the Browns have named Brian Hoyer as the starting quarterback to start the season, enigmatic backup Johnny Manziel has taken the news in stride. Manziel acknowledged that he is “smart enough to know” that he did not play well enough in his preseason action in order to take a lead on the starting job, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer (via Twitter).

Manziel stands by his polarizing actions off the field, saying that he would not have done anything differently this offseason, according to Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal (via Twitter).

While he doesn’t regret his transgressions this offseason, he does admit that he needs to continue to practice and prepare extremely diligently and with a purpose, while he awaits an opportunity to get on the field, writes Ulrich (via Twitter).

Here are some other notes from around the Browns:

  • Hoyer “crumbled under the pressure” of the spotlight during the Browns’ preseason matchup with the Redskins on Monday, and the pressure will only increase now that he has been named the starter, writes Tom Pelissero of USA Today. He notes that even if the team’s defense exceed expectations, that Hoyer as a starter-by-default is not a recipe for success.
  • Before Hoyer was named the starter, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk assessed the media circus surrounding the team’s quarterback competition. He notes that the plan to curb his attention by not naming him the day one starter did not work, and that they were better off making an early decision on the depth chart. Florio believes they should have just named him the starter, to save him the scrutiny of the competition. They could also have relegated Manziel to the bench earlier, relieving him of the pressure to be a star in the preseason.
  • While Manziel is one of the most polarizing rookie quarterbacks among fans and pundits, NFL players believe in the young gunslinger. According to an ESPN player poll, 69% of players believe Manziel will enjoy some sort of NFL success, while only 31% envision him as becoming the next bust at quarterback for the Browns. ESPN collected answers to this question from 82 anonymous NFL players.
  • In a piece of non-quarterback news, Josh Gordon has still yet to hear about a ruling following his hearing after being suspended for violating the substance-abuse policy, writes Florio. If Gordon’s year-long suspension is relaxed, that will be the most significant upgrade the Browns’ offense could get, regardless of who is under center at the time the troubled wide receiver returns to the field.

Brian Hoyer Named Browns’ Starting QB

August 20th, 2014 at 8:23am CST by Luke Adams

The Browns have named Brian Hoyer as their starting quarterback heading into the regular season, the team announced today in a press release. First-round pick Johnny Manziel had been challenging the incumbent signal-caller for the No. 1 role in Cleveland, but ultimately couldn’t unseat Hoyer, at least for now.

“[Hoyer] was the clear leader from the beginning,” said head coach Mike Pettine. “We’ve maintained all along that if it was close, I would prefer to go with the more experienced player. Brian has done a great job in the meeting rooms and with his teammates on the practice field and in the locker room.”

Neither player has stood out during the team’s preseason games, as I pointed out yesterday when I asked PFR readers which QB would win the starting job. Manziel had the opportunity to win the job, with Hoyer coming off an ACL surgery and not exactly having much NFL playing experience himself, but the rookie didn’t appear ready to take over the starting role quite yet. For what it’s worth, over 75% of you correctly predicted that Hoyer would be named the Browns’ starter, though a portion of those voters believed Manziel should play instead.

According to Mike Freeman (via Twitter), the decision will be good news for most of the Browns’ locker room, since the majority of the club’s players preferred Hoyer. While the 28-year-old Ohio native can’t necessarily match Manziel’s upside – or popularity, he was solid last year before an injury derailed his season, leading the Browns to wins over the Vikings and Bengals before going down in his third start.

Poll: Will Browns Start Hoyer Or Manziel?

August 19th, 2014 at 2:16pm CST by Luke Adams

Last night’s exhibition game against the Redskins was supposed to help the Browns’ coaching staff determine which quarterback would start for the team in Week 1, but neither Brian Hoyer nor Johnny Manziel did anything to impress. While third-stringer Connor Shaw racked up 123 passing yards on just nine passing attempts, Hoyer and Manziel combined for 22 pass attempts and only accumulated double-digit yardage (81).

Meanwhile, it was a single digit – namely, the middle one on Manziel’s right hand – that dominated most headlines, after the rookie gave the finger to Washington’s sideline in a moment of frustration. Speaking to Peter King of TheMMQB.com, head coach Mike Pettine indicated that incident probably wouldn’t be a factor in his decision on the team’s starting quarterback, but added “it will be dealt with.” As for his signal-callers’ performances, Pettine confirmed that the game didn’t make his decision easier.

“I don’t know,” Pettine said. “Neither guy really distinguished himself tonight, and we’ll have to go back and study the tape and figure out who to go with. I will lean on [offensive coordinator] Kyle Shanahan and [quarterback coach] Dowell Loggains quite a bit, because they’ve watched them every day.”

The team likes Hoyer, who was solid when healthy last season and has several years of experience as a backup on his résumé. But Hoyer has only thrown 192 regular-passes during his NFL career, so it’s not as if he’s all that more experienced than Manziel, who was drafted in the first round and figures to start sooner or later. Whether the rookie is ready to step in and play right away remains to be seen, and Pettine’s decision will ultimately depend on how far along the team feels Manziel is.

What do you think? Will the Browns play it safe and go with the veteran option in Hoyer, or roll the dice with the higher-upside option in Manziel?

Extra Points: Manziel, Onobun, Wright

August 18th, 2014 at 9:13pm CST by Zachary Links

Let’s round up some links from around the league on this Monday evening, wherein the players and the officials in the Browns–Redskins preseason tilt have conspired to transform the Twitterverse into an alternately bemused and enraged cacophony:

  • Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com offers his first entry in what will be a three-part series examining how Super Bowl champions work within the confines of the salary cap to build a winner. Part I examines the percentage of the cap that different champions spent on their highest-priced player. Interestingly enough, the teams who invested most heavily in one player had the most success in the three-year period immediately following their Super Bowl victory.
  • The Ravens might need some out-of-house reinforcements depending on the severity of Jimmy Smith‘s chest injury and Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun looks at some of the names out there on the open market. Some of the more recognizable names are Asante Samuel, Chris Houston, Corey Webster, Dunta Robinson, and Quentin Jammer. However, as we learned yesterday, there is a reason most of those players are still on the market. GM Ozzie Newsome has never been one to make moves out of desperation, and if the injuries to Smith, Lardarius Webb, and/or Asa Jackson are more dire than initially thought, the Ravens are probably more likely to trade for a corner or sign someone who will be released in the coming weeks.
  • Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith is less-than-thrilled with tight end Tim Wright‘s play and Pat Yasinkas of ESPN.com writes that he needs to show improvement quickly if he doesn’t want his spot on the roster to be in danger. “He hasn’t played as well as Tim should be playing,” Smith said. “He’s dropped some balls. If you watched practice, he’s dropped balls. But he’s a big part of what we want to do with the two-receiver, two-tight-end set. Tim hasn’t blocked as well inside. Once you’re that H-back and you don’t block, now they say you’re just another receiver and teams start going nickel. If they do that at least you have to be a good pass catcher. Tim’s a good player. He just hasn’t played as well as he needs to lately.”
  • Jaguars tight end Fendi Onobun has been diagnoses with a torn quad and will require surgery, which means he’s done for the year, tweets Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union.
  • Mike Rodak of ESPN.com writes that Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus did not take part in team drills on Monday, and the Bills used a combination of Landon Cohen, Corbin Bryant, and Stefan Charles in his stead. Although Buffalo could keep all three of those players as depth behind Dareus and Kyle Williams, they could choose to keep just two and release the third.
  • If the Cowboys tabbed Johnny Manziel, as a newly-released book says owner Jerry Jones nearly made happen, the Browns‘ rookie quarterback would be Teddy Bridgewater, tweets Tony Grossi of ESPNCleveland.com.
  • In Jim Dent’s new book “Manziel Mania,” the author wrote that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wrote Johnny Manziel’s name on the draft card for the No. 16 pick only to have his son, Stephen Jones, literally yank the card out of his hand. As great as that story is, it’s simply untrue, a source tells Sean Lester of the Dallas Morning News. As Lester notes, given that the actual draft card is delivered in New York and Jerry and Stephen Jones supervised the draft from the team’s Valley Ranch war room, it seems unlikely the episode occurred as Dent described.

Rory Parks contributed to this post.

Sunday Roundup: Clemens, Fairley, Bortles

August 17th, 2014 at 12:57pm CST by Rory Parks

The preseason has reached its unofficial halfway point, and teams must trim their rosters to 75 players in just over a week from now. As position competitions continue to smolder and as bubble players strive to prove themselves in preseason contests, let’s take a look at some notes from around the league:

  • Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean offers some lessons learned from the Titans‘ second preseason game against the Saints. He notes that Travis Coons‘ accuracy has made the kicking competition with Maikon Bonani much more interesting than anticipated, and while return specialist Marc Mariani still faces an uphill battle to make the club, his returns on Saturday night have kept him in the picture.
  • Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com believes the Ravens should keep starting corners Lardarius Webb and Jimmy Smith on the shelf until the regular season opener against the Bengals. Baltimore has been “snakebitten” at the cornerback position and Hensley believes the team’s best bet is to hope that a decent player gets released as the preseason rolls on. He writes that, if free agents like Asante Samuel and Dunta Robinson could help, they would have jobs by now.
  • Kevin Acee of U-T San Diego writes that the Chargers are thrilled to have Kellen Clemens as Philip Rivers‘ backup, as they are confident Clemens could win games for them if he were pressed into duty.
  • Mike Klis of the Denver Post ranks undrafted free agent Juwan Thompson as the Broncos‘ biggest training camp surprise. Though Thompson entered camp as the No. 6 tailback on the roster, he now appears to have a legitimate shot at making the club.
  • Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press writes that the Lions need to salvage Nick Fairley, who represents their last hope from the now infamous 2011 draft, but if Fairley does not show improvement soon, he could be a midseason trade candidate.
  • Birkett (Twitter links) and Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com offer brief discussions of the Lions‘ wide receiver competition and predict which wideouts may make the club.
  • Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com provides a list of which Packers bubble players helped themselves and who hurt themselves in Saturday’s preseason game against the Rams.
  • Ben Volin of the Boston Globe believes the Browns and Jaguars should hand the reins to Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel right away, rather than have them sit behind the players they will eventually overtake. Since Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan led their clubs to the playoffs during their rookie seasons in 2008, rookie quarterbacks have fared very well when thrown into the fire from day one. For what it’s worth, Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida-Times Union tweets that Bortles will finally get reps with the first team offense on Monday and could play with the ones in the second quarter in the team’s upcoming preseason game against the Lions.

AFC North Notes: Gordon, Manziel, Roethlisberger

August 14th, 2014 at 7:24pm CST by Dallas Robinson

A decision in the Josh Gordon appeal case might not be delivered until the end of next week, sources tell Adam Schefter of ESPN (Twitter link). On August 4, we heard that a ruling would be handed down within one to three weeks — that time frame would set August 25 as the deadline, meaning the end of next week would be plausible. Gordon is facing a one-year ban for violating the league’s policy on drugs of abuse. As of last week, no settlement had been discussed, though it seems like a reduced suspension would benefit all parties involved.

  • We heard earlier today that the NFL is considering harsher penalties for domestic abuse incidents after the fallout of Ray Rice‘s two-game ban, but a source tells Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that increased discipline might not be that easy. The league would need to consult the NFL Players Association before installing stiffer suspensions, and per Florio, league management has not yet raised the topic with the union. While the NFL’s position might be that it controls all disciplinary regulations, Florio notes that the NFLPA would argue that any changes would need to be negotiated.
  • It had previously been reported that Johnny Manziel would start the Browns’ second preseason game, but according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter), Brian Hoyer will take the reins at quarterback against the Redskins. Both players will spend time with the first-team offense, tweets Rapoport, alternating every two series.
  • More Manziel: ESPN’s Chris Mortenen reports that the rookie quarterback, along with several other first-year players, were a few minutes late to a team meeting on Monday. The incident is being handled intenally, and was not a factor in the Browns’ decision to start Hoyer next week. The episode shouldn’t be a big deal, but it speaks to the media coverage that surrounds everything Manziel-related.
  • Ben Roethlisberger was hurt by former teammate Emmanuel Sanders‘ recent declaration that Peyton Manning is a “far better leader” than the Steelers quarterback, writes Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I wish he would have reached out to me and just say that and I would have been fine with it,” said Roethlisberger. “Whether he meant it or not, it hurt in a sense that I tried so hard to keep him here last year and was always supporting him.”

Poll: Which Rookie QB Will Be Best In 2014?

August 14th, 2014 at 8:55am CST by Luke Adams

ESPN’s Ron Jaworski made comments earlier this week that raised a few eyebrows, suggesting that he believed Cardinals signal-caller Logan Thomas has been the best rookie quarterback he’s seen so far this summer (link via Marc Sessler of NFL.com).

“When I plugged the tape in yesterday morning and I saw Logan Thomas, I was shocked,” Jaworski said on ESPN yesterday, referring to the Cards’ contest against Houston. “He was fantastic in this game. He’s big, strong and he can rip throws. … Of all the rookie quarterbacks that I’ve watched so far – yes, early in the preseason – Logan Thomas has been the best that I have seen.”

Even if Jaworski’s assessment of Thomas is spot-on, the sixth quarterback selected in this year’s draft may not have the opportunities for playing time that many of the guys selected ahead of him will have. Carson Palmer isn’t an elite QB, but for a Cardinals team expecting to compete for a postseason berth, he’s the more reliable option than the rookie at this point.

On the other hand, players like Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater, Blake Bortles, and Derek Carr will play for teams who combined for a total of 17 wins in 2013. While the Browns, Vikings, Jaguars, and Raiders may have aspirations of a playoff spot, it would be somewhat surprising if any of those clubs actually earned one.

As such, those situations are more ripe for a rookie quarterback to receive a more significant opportunity, to help him develop and learn his new team’s system in preparation for contention in a year or two. Perhaps a strong performance from one of those rookie signal-callers in 2014 could even help his club contribute immediately.

Still, for now, veterans like Brian Hoyer, Matt Cassel, Chad Henne, and Matt Schaub remain penciled in as starters, so there’s no guarantee that any one of those rookies makes a huge impact this season. What do you think? Which rookie do you expect to have the most productive 2014 campaign?

Sunday Roundup: Manziel, Marciano, Chiefs

August 10th, 2014 at 12:54pm CST by Rory Parks

As teams try to improve upon their performances from the first week of preseason games, let’s take a look at some links from around the league:

Rookie Quarterback Roundup: Bortles, Bridgewater, Carr, Manziel

August 9th, 2014 at 8:02am CST by Matt Feminis

Jaguars No. 3 overall choice Blake Bortles had an encouraging pro debut against Tampa Bay last night, completing 7-of-11 pass attempts for 117 yards, “which included three drops and just one questionable decision, a check-down effort on 3rd-and-19 that was tipped and nearly picked off,” according to the Orlando Sentinel’s Paul Tenorio. Head coach Gus Bradley was quoted after the game, saying, “I thought [Bortles] did a nice job, showed some good poise. We felt like we could protect him. Just the poise factor, we wanted to see that in him, and he did a nice job.”

How did the other rookie QBs fare?

  • Vikings first-rounder Teddy Bridgewater’s first play was encouraging, as he bootlegged right and threw a 21-yard strike on the move. The gain was negated by penalty, but Bridgewater performed well enough against Oakland to generate excitement despite an uneven stat line (6-of-13, 49 yards, two sacks, fumble). Overall, Bridgewater generated excitement, but clearly has aspects of his game to work on before he challenges for the starting job. “He looked unsteady at times when challenged by unfamiliar defensive alignments,” according to Brian Murray of TwinCities.com.
  • Meanwhile, Derek Carr, chosen by the Raiders four picks after Bridgewater, went 10-of-16 for 76 yards an interception (which should have been caught by the intended receiver). Carr was victimized by a few drops and bailed out on a few throws behind his receiver, but overall received passing grades in his debut. In terms of improvement areas, ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez notes the rookie needs to work on his touch.
  • As Dallas Robinson mentioned last night, Patriots second-rounder Jimmy Garoppolo looked better in his first NFL game action than he had looked in practice, outshining veteran backup Ryan Mallett. The rookie from Eastern Illinois went 9-of-13 for 157 yards and a touchdown. Garoppolo “showed a poise and pocket presence that was impressive,” according to the Boston Herald’s Karen Guregian. “The players in the huddle responded to him. And, unlike Mallett, who struggled at times dealing with a shaky offensive line, Garoppolo made plays when the going got tough during Thursday night’s 23-6 loss to the Redskins in the preseason opener.”
  • As for Browns 22nd overall pick Johnny Manziel, his debut in Detroit tonight ranks as one of the most anticipated preseason games in recent memory. “The Johnny Football Circus comes to Detroit” as Free Press columnist Drew Sharp puts it. The game is sold out and the Lions issued credentials for all 200 seats of the press box, reports Sharp’s colleague Dave Birkett.

Texans Owner Talks Watt, Manziel, Fans

August 8th, 2014 at 12:29pm CST by Luke Adams

As we heard yesterday, it’s been a rough year for Texans owner Bob McNair, who endured a 10-month ordeal in which he battled two forms of cancer under an assumed name at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. However, McNair has been given a clean bill of health by the team of doctors that treated him, and was available to speak to Tania Ganguli of ESPN.com about a few topics related to football and the Texans. Here are some of McNair’s notable quotes from Ganguli’s pair of pieces for ESPN:

On the possibility of using the franchise tag on J.J. Watt when his rookie contract expires:

“You’ve got guys in the Hall of Fame that have been franchised in back-to-back years. The franchise tag is worth something to the team and you can’t be afraid to use it.”

On a potential long-term deal for Watt, sooner or later:

“It’s going to be a big contract. If we can do something with him that makes sense for the team to do it early, we’ll certainly do it. It has to make sense for us. The team comes first. We want to keep all of our players. We want to take care of all or our players, but the team comes first.”

On prioritizing which players to lock up:

“Mario [Williams] is gone; we just couldn’t do that. Some people said, ‘Why didn’t you sign Peyton Manning?’ Well, we just couldn’t do it. We would have had to let go of two or three of our outstanding players to create enough room in the salary cap to do something with him. Those are the decisions you have to make as you go forward. You hope you make the right decision.”

On what would have happened if the Texans opted to draft Johnny Manziel:

“I knew with Manziel it would be a frenzy. And probably even if he didn’t succeed at being an outstanding NFL quarterback for a couple years, the fans would have been frenzied. … Long term, we had questions as to how well he’d fit in our system doing what we wanted to do. At the end of the day, you’ve gotta do what you think is best for the team. If you do what’s best for the team and the team succeeds as a result of it, the fans are going to forget those other things.”

On the role that fan pressure plays in the team’s football decisions:

“Ultimately all they want to do is win. Once you win, at that point they don’t care what those decisions were; at that point, they’re happy because you’re winning. If you picked some of those other guys and you didn’t win, their response would be, ‘Why’d you listen to us? You’re losing. We’re unhappy because you’re losing.’ We respect our fans and we listen to our fans, but they don’t study the film that we study. They don’t have the information and knowledge that we have. We’re in the best position to make those decisions.”

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