Johnny Manziel should be the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns. I had him ranked as the #1 quarterback in the 2014 NFL draft and I feel very strongly that he is the best quarterback on the Cleveland Browns football team. The Browns are within striking range of the AFC North Division championship and a spot in the playoffs, but they will not make it with Brian Hoyer as their starting quarterback.
Check out my draft analysis of Johnny Manziel here and my 2014 NFL Draft offensive rankings.
So far this season Brian Hoyer has completed only 56.2% of his passes, which ranks him last in the NFL among all other starting
Manziel should be the starting QB for the Browns.quarterbacks. His quarterback rating of 79.9 ranks him 43rd out of 50 quarterbacks that have played so far this year.
His touchdown to interception ratio is really bad as well. He has thrown only 11 touchdowns to his 10 interceptions. To make matters even worse in the last two games he has thrown 5 interceptions and 0 touchdowns. The 11 touchdowns Hoyer has thrown this season ranks the Browns 30th in the league in passing touchdowns. It has appeared that defensive coordinators have figured out how to make Hoyer throw interceptions.
Hoyer's biggest flaw in his career so far in college and in the NFL is his amount of interceptions. During his career at Michigan State he threw 35 touchdowns to 23 interceptions. A good touchdown to interception ratio is 2 to 1 and Hoyer was not ever close to that while at Michigan State.
While in the NFL he has not been able to get away from the interception bug. In his 6 seasons in the NFL he has thrown 18 touchdowns to 16 interceptions. In the NFL the team that makes the fewest mistakes usually wins, not the team that makes the most big plays. Hoyer has got to learn to protect the ball and not throw interceptions.
Even with Hoyer throwing 10 interceptions the Browns still have a +6 turnover ratio. That stat alone should have them winning more games, but the Browns have to get more production from the quarterback position.
Johnny Manziel
Enter Johnny Manziel in the Buffalo Bills game last week and he shows a small snippet of what he is capable of doing. He provided an initial spark by driving his team 80 yards in 10 plays capped with a 10 yard touchdown run by himself. He finished the game completing 5 of 8 passes for 63 yards with 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
Manziel brings such a sense of confidence that it rubs off on the rest of the team. The whole team appears to play with more energy with him at quarterback. This was very visible while he was at Texas A & M and it showed again this past Sunday versus the Bills. Manziel is a winner and while at Texas A & M he willed his team to victory.
In his two years at Texas A & M, Manziel completed right at 69% of his passes, while throwing 63 touchdowns to only 22 interceptions. That is almost a 3:1 touchdown to interception ratio, which is really good. He did this while competing in the SEC, the toughest conference in college football.
Manziel is also a very good runner, which makes it very difficult for defenses to stop him, but he is a passer first. He looks to pass first, and then run second. In 2012 Manziel rushed for just over 1,400 yards and 21 touchdowns. In 2013 he rushed for 759 yards and 9 touchdowns.
Versus the Bills on Sunday, Manziel rushed 2 times for 13 yards. In contrast, Moyer has rushed 20 times this season for only 17 yards.
It is very important that when everything breaks down the quarterback can get out of the pocket and make a bad play a positive with their legs. But, it is also very important that the quarterback is slippery enough to not take the big hit. Manziel has shown during his college career that he can do that.
For the Cleveland Browns to have the best chance of winning the AFC North Division and making the playoffs they must go with Johnny Manziel.