Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel had a forgettable stint in the NFL. While he’s still playing football in Canada, it’s highly unlikely that he makes his way back to the NFL, where, according to Kyle Shanahan, the ex-Heisman Trophy winner’s career was doomed from the start.
The San Francisco 49ers head coach was recently a guest on Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take podcast, and among the topics he touched on was Manziel’s tenure in Cleveland. Shanahan, who was Cleveland’s offensive coordinator in 2014, thinks Manziel was a good player, but he was not in favor of how the Browns’ higher-ups wanted the team to utilize the dual-threat quarterback (h/t Josh Edwards of 247 Sports).
“He is quick and things like that. Everyone there wanted me to run the same stuff with him as we did with RGIII [Robert Griffin III]. Well RGIII runs a 4.3, Johnny runs a 4.68. That is a different type of running style. Johnny is not going to outrun people on a zone read. Johnny needs to go downhill and make you miss which is quarterback draw, quarterback power, things like that. The problem with that stuff is that's where you get hit.”
That internal butting of heads in Cleveland cost Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains their jobs, as the Browns fired them in January 2015.
Shanahan ultimately feels sorry for how things went for Johnny Football, who was not able to live up to the hype and failed to keep his head in the game.
“The pressure goes along with it. Obviously, Johnny, I think, coped with it the way a lot of people would. He was good to me. He worked hard. I wish him the best but I think he was set up to fail from the beginning.”
Manziel is currently playing quarterback for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, still hoping that an opportunity for an NFL return will come knocking at his door. Unfortunately, things aren't going well for him up north.
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