Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine “was ready to move on” from Johnny Manziel when the 22-year-old quarterback checked himself into rehab, a league source tells Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports.
While Manziel is believed to be a poor bet to open the 2015 season as the Browns’ starting signal-caller, he has enough support within the organization to steal Josh McCown’s job with an impressive training camp, as another league source told Robinson that team owner Jimmy Haslam, general manager Ray Farmer and new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo “still believe Manziel can be salvaged.”
DeFilippo heaped loads of praise on Manziel last week, using the words “great,” “fantastic” and “awesome” to describe his work at the Browns headquarters after spending 10 weeks in rehab.
“All I know is this: From the moment he steeped in this building from the last two weeks, he’s been nothing but a consummate professional,” DeFilippo said. “He’s spent every hour that he’s been allowed to spend in this building.”
The No. 22 overall pick from last year’s draft has also been endearing himself to teammates and coaches over the last few weeks. Browns five-time first-team All-Pro left tackle Joe Thomas said the difference in Manziel’s offseason commitment has been “night and day” from where it was last year.
“Last year on a Saturday, you might see a picture of [Johnny] on Instagram floating in a swan drinking champagne,” Thomas told NFL Network in late April. “This year on a Saturday if you came in the building, you’d see him studying his playbook and watching film with his coach. It’s pretty apparent he’s realized how important football is to him.”
Getting that type of praise from a star player and team leader like Thomas is very important. Just last month, Thomas said Manziel had “lost probably a lot of trust” amongst teammates for the way he handed himself once he became the starter last December.
“I’m hoping when he comes back in April we see a new Johnny and everybody’s blown away with his commitment,” Thomas said earlier this month. “And I think he’s got the talent, so it’s just a matter of if he commits himself to it, we can have a really good quarterback on our hands.”
It sounds like Manziel got the message and is taking the necessary steps to resurrect his career. He’s still obviously got a long ways to go, but this looks like he’s off to a great start.
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