Add Cleveland Browns safety Donte Whitner to the growing list of teammates and coaches who have expressed praise for the much-improved work ethic of second-year quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Donte Whitner: There are certain guys who are here early and stay late every day — Johnny Manziel has been one of those guys
— Kevin Jones (@Mr_KevinJones) May 26, 2015
About a month ago, 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 a big deal, especially considering 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 back in early April. “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 it looks like he’s off to a great start.
New Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo also recently heaped loads of praise on Manziel, using the words “great,” “fantastic” and “awesome” to describe his work ethic after spending 10 weeks in rehab.
“All I know is this: From the moment he stepped in this building,” DeFilippo said, “he’s been nothing but a consummate professional. He’s spent every hour that he’s been allowed to spend in this building.”
Manziel just opened OTAs as the No. 2 QB behind Josh McCown, but we expect him to take over the starting job early in the 2015 season, if he doesn’t already have the job by the end of training camp.
Check out a series of interesting videos below related to the Cleveland Browns.
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