It had been exactly 500 days since the Cleveland Browns drafted Heisman-winner Johnny Manziel in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Maybe that doesn’t seem like quite an interminable period of existence, but that would be long enough to orbit the sun one full time if you were marooned somewhere out in the cold, deadly expanse of space halfway between Earth and Mars, which is a feeling I have to imagine is somewhat commonplace to lifelong fans of said Cleveland Browns.
But Sunday was a good and special day on the shores of Lake Erie because Johnny Football finally completed that annoying nickname paperwork transfer from east Texas to northeast Ohio. As will likely often be the case with Manziel, the stat line was not kind: 8-of-15 passing, 175 yards, two touchdowns, but also two fumbles (neither lost). In all, the Browns’ offense could only muster 274 yards of net offense, but it was Manziel who delivered this win, just when it looked as if Marcus Mariota, another galactically hyped quarterback prospect, might decide to steal it away.
Instead, Manziel continued his steady and often frustrating development into a pocket passer and lobbed a couple of beautiful bombs into the arms of fourth-year receiver Travis Benjamin, a straight-ahead 60-yarder just a couple of minutes into the game and an arching 50-yarder off a scramble to his left to cap off the day with less than three minutes to go and seal a 28-14 victory.
The last play, especially, felt like the Manziel the Browns thought they were getting on draft day. Feeling the pressure from both sides, he darted away toward the Browns sideline. Facing a third and six, this was where either the Browns blew the play and tried to pin the Titans back in their own territory and force Mariota to drive 90 or so yards to tie the game in less than three minutes. The Browns likely still would’ve won the game in the end, but that became an ending unrealized when Manziel scrambled just enough to create a space in which he could stop, set his feet, and throw downfield back across his body. Fifty yards on the fly into Benjamin’s arms and the receiver did the rest.
Now, this definitely doesn’t mean Manziel is free and clear and on his way to All-Pro teams and a decade and change entrenched as the Browns’ clear starter. Cleveland ran 30 rushing plays compared to only 15 pass attempts for Manziel. The technical term for that strategy is “completely untenable,” but that’s what you do when you have to send the backup in with the first team. Manziel was also sacked twice and lost the ball twice, though it didn’t hurt Cleveland in either case. When Manziel stands in the pocket, he’s like one of those rigid green plastic Army soldiers come to life, and the ball slings from his hands at what feels like a quasi-three-quarter angle. Mechanically and fundamentally speaking, it is not good football to watch. But when those unscripted plays come to life and the results outweigh the process, Manziel shines, as he did twice on Sunday. The hard part will be trying to stabilize Manziel’s performances when so much of his game seems rooted in pure spontaneity, or, how to get more from Manziel without killing what it is that can make him great?
Putting aside talk of long-term viability, this feels like a good win for Manziel. Like, even if you’re not a Browns fan, this was pure fun to watch and you can’t honestly say you were pulling for Mariota if you live outside of Hawaii, Oregon, or Tennessee. And maybe this win feels good because it almost seemed there was a realistic chance this would never materialize, at least not in Cleveland. (Jerry Jones is likely still frothing over the idea of Manziel in a Cowboys uniform, especially considering Tony Romo’s ill-timed broken clavicle and the infinite sadness that is Brandon Weeden.) There is a great and ignoble history of ballyhooed NFL quarterbacks who can never make it work in the NFL. Stars in college, often, but the goods for professional competency, never mind stardom, just never come to form.
And there is, of course, the very real chance that it may never really come for Manziel, but the improvement from his forgettable four-game stint last season is undeniable. In fact, Sunday was a pretty outstanding for a lot of the 2014 class of quarterbacks. Derek Carr engineered a palm-sweating 37-33 comeback against Baltimore. Teddy Bridgewater looked fleet and confident in a 26-16 win against Detroit. And Blake Bortles, the first QB selected of them all, watched as his kicker cap off a last-second 23-20 shocker over Miami.
Quarterback development resides on a continuum; it just doesn’t happen for everyone at the same time, and quarterbacks, beyond other positions, always need more time to grow into the job. Rarely do they burst into Week 1 fully formed and ready to win in more ways than one. Guys like Cam Newton and Russell Wilson are the exceptions to decades of norms. Manziel was a star at A&M, but he is now very much an NFL norm, and that is fine. He’ll continue to grow and mature, off the field and on, and with some luck, he’ll have every chance to make a real go at this whole quarterbacking thing.
Regardless, it was critical for Manziel to have a day like he did on Sunday, where he could harness his creativity and improvisation to develop plays that theretofore had no business existing. He willed those touchdowns into being, and there was a very real and practical reason that Cleveland made Manziel the second playcaller taken in the draft after Bortles, and it was for the kinds of plays that won the game on Sunday.
I couldn’t name you one actual Blake Bortles NFL highlight if you asked me, but now I’ve got two from Manziel in my memory banks. With any modicum of luck, they’ll merely represent the start of a growing, years-long collection and not simply a flash of what was not meant to be.
