Despite their efforts to humble and reign in Johnny Manziel off the field, the rookies play so far during training camp seems reminiscent of his time at Texas A&M.
Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal says Manziel is indeed closing the gap on Brian Hoyer and believes Johnny Football’s talent will ultimately trump everything Hoyer can offer.
“I wouldn’t say that [it’s closer]. When camp began, Brian was the ones because we had to put somebody out there with the ones,” Pettine said. “But they were truly competing against each other, and at some point we will mix the units. I think that it’s all part of our evaluation process.”
The bottom line is Manziel appears to have narrowed the gap between himself and Hoyer with his performance in the scrimmage. Still, Manziel described his rookie growing pains and attempt to learn the intricacies of the playbook as “a struggle” last week, so he must focus solely on overcoming those obstacles to surpass Hoyer.
Hoyer has been a career backup for a reason. He may be a great guy who quietly leads by example, but that won’t win games in the NFL.
Like Russell Wilson two years ago in Seattle, Manziel’s intangibles and it factor will swallow Hoyer up sooner rather than later.