Johnny Manziel admits slacking some as backup

In this week’s SI media article by Richard Deitsch, he goes inside FOX’s preparation to call Johnny Manziel’s first professional start. Deitsch talked to Kevin Burkhardt about the 20-minute production meeting he, John Lynch and Pam Oliver and producers had speaking directly to Johnny Manziel. It sounds like Lynch was pretty direct with the young Browns QB.

“I thought he gave a pretty honest answer; he said you can’t really compare my work habits to Peyton Manning or Tom Brady,” Burkhardt said. “Manziel said this week he put in maximum effort, that he worked his tail off, and that hopefully it was going to show. He was pretty honest with us on the fact that he put in all this work this week and maybe not for the whole year. He came off very honest, maybe even a little naive. John [Lynch] brought up all the great quarterbacks and said they do what Johnny did this week every week.”

“It was a good talk,” Burkhardt continued. “We did everything from talking about his college days to what he learned from sitting out. He was calm and relaxed and engaging, and I enjoyed the meeting. The one thing that impressed me — and the coaches told this to John, too – is that he has been a good teammate. Manziel said he thought sitting out was a good thing because he learned more about football this year than he had his entire life. I believed him. I don’t think it was media talk.”

All this sounds pretty consistent with what we’ve heard all season about Manziel. Yes, he has a giant attitude and ego, but he’s also a good teammate. Even as it’s easy to point at Manziel’s first game and look at this as proof that he didn’t do enough, it’s also hard to tell what “enough” is until you’ve seen the task ahead of you. Maybe Johnny Manziel didn’t know he was so far behind the competition in the NFL after the pre-season. Maybe he thought he was on track to be able to compete in the NFL until the end of the Bengals game on Sunday.

You can look at this as an indictment of a cocky kid who will just never get it, or you can look at it like a learning experience. I believed in Manziel’s talent when the Browns drafted him and after watching him move and throw the ball, I’d like to think he can still make some noise in the NFL. Count me among those that would like to believe this last three games will serve as a wakeup call for Manziel so that he works to more appropriate levels this off-season and into next year.