Johnny Manziel Isn't Johnny Football Again Yet, but He's Not Johnny Drama Either

BEREA, Ohio — Johnny Manziel takes the snap, drops to pass, sets his feet, turns toward rookie fullback Malcolm Johnson in the right flat and pump-fakes like he wants to throw the football through a cinder block wall. Manziel then resets his arm and feet as Johnson wheels up the sideline. The quarterback feathers a perfect pass to the receiver, who catches the ball in stride for substantial training camp yardage and some generous approval from the crowd.

It was the first day of full-pad practices. Manziel and the second-team offense were pumped up by the well-executed completion. So was starting quarterback Josh McCown, who raced across the field to congratulate his backup.

"It was just a good quarterback play," McCown said after practice. "You get fired up when you see people you work with work on something, and focus, and study, and put the time in, and take it out to the field and make it happen."

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The throw flashed Johnny Manziel's potential. Not just his potential as a passer—we all know the kid has an arm—but his potential as a guy who moves his eyes and feet with precision, who does the little things to make plays succeed, who works, focuses, studies and puts time in. It was a flash of the quarterback and individual Manziel needs to become.

It was just one on-the-field flash. Manziel struggled in full-squad drills up until that sideline pass to Johnson on that first day of padded practice. He has mixed good series with bad, in practices and a scrimmage. But there were several moments when Manziel looked like the player we all want to see.

There need to be more moments. Last year there were no moments at all.

Engaged, Focused

Johnny Manziel has improved. That's not training camp boilerplate, party-line parroting or wishful thinking. It's a firsthand observation from someone who spent a few days in Berea last year and a few more this year.

Manziel did not look like a rookie in training camp last year. He looked like an athletic college dude who won a radio contest to take a few snaps with the Browns offense. He was a scared bunny in the pocket, then fled that pocket at the slightest provocation. Routine seven-on-sevens might as well have been LSATs. He was obviously unprepared, even though coaches and teammates at the time told us he was preparing as hard as anybody.

Manziel looked more like a first-round rookie in the first days of this year's training camp. Instead of evacuating the pocket as if it's on fire, his head bobs toward a checkdown receiver and the ball often follows. Downfield throws are tight and accurate this year; they were nearly nonexistent last year. He reads a defensive formation, makes an adjustment or alters the formation and doesn't look like it is using up all of his bandwidth just to do it.

There are still passes that land in defenders' bellies, mishandled snaps and plays that would result in sacks if defenders weren't obligated to leap away from the quarterback at the last second. But there is potential, progress and hope.

Why does that sound like boilerplate? Perhaps because every question asked about Manziel sounds like a loaded question and gets a semi-scripted answer.

"Johnny has matured," receiver Andrew Hawkins said. "There's no question about that. He's in his playbook."

Compare Hawkins' remarks to receiver Taylor Gabriel's, made after a different practice:

"Johnny's doing good. He's focused. He's in his playbook and he's grindin'. He doesn't like to mess up. He's a great teammate."

Sounds like boilerplate. But with Manziel rifling slants into tight windows to Gabriel, who has the speed to turn anything into a touchdown when hit in stride, it is believable boilerplate.

Hawkins and Gabriel are two of the few Browns offensive players who can compare Manziel 2015 to Manziel 2014. Last year's most recognizable receivers are gone: troubled Josh Gordon, creaky Miles Austin, injury-plagued tight end Jordan Cameron. Dwayne Bowe and Brian Hartline are the highest-profile replacements. McCown has taken over as the veteran mentor, replacing Brian Hoyer. Even the offensive coordinator is new, with coach John DeFilippo replacing Kyle Shanahan.

Manziel enjoys a clean slate in the meeting rooms and the huddle.

No-nonsense head coach Mike Pettine remains. "Some of it is physical, but I would say the majority of it is the mental part of it, understanding protections," Pettine told reporters, describing Manziel's growth. "...I just think he has so much more of an intimate knowledge of what we are doing." In other words, Manziel has matured, is focused and is in his playbook.

Owner Jimmy Haslam also remains. Haslam took a chance on the most popular and polarizing college star in the nation last season; his return on that investment was a season plagued by rumors of immature behavior, TMZ flare-ups, and inept play on the field and in practice, a season we now know was lost in part due to Manziel's substance-abuse problems.

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"We're pleased that Johnny did the things he should do in the offseason," Haslam said. "It's a great improvement over his first year. But anything less would have been totally unacceptable."

Haslam is not known for his patience, or for mincing words. He measures his remarks on Manziel carefully, but he doesn't sound like he's reading from a script, even when he delivers variations on familiar lines:

"Physically, he looks a lot better, the way a pro athlete should. He's really engaged this year."

"Everybody forgets he's barely 22 years old. So he's still young. I think over the next couple of years we have to see if Johnny can be a legitimate quarterback or not. I don't want to put too much pressure on him or our coaches to say it has to happen this year."

Manziel is young, and he does look more athletic this camp than last; he didn't even look particularly fast when pass-rushers chased him around the practice field last year. But he's still young is often a football code word. Players under four-year contracts are expected to grow up quickly.

One thing Haslam said was inarguable: The Browns are not putting pressure on him this year. With a true veteran journeyman ahead of him and no challengers behind him, Manziel is all but assured a backup position, which, ideally, will allow him to make more progress than headlines.

Leader Through and Through

Pettine announced before an intrasquad scrimmage last week that Manziel might receive some first-team reps. He couched and qualified the situation so heavily that he might as well have tempered expectations by dumping a bucket of ice water on the press pool.

"It's just because you want to mix up the supporting cast,'' Pettine said, via the Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot. "...You don't want the first time that he's out there with that group of guys to be in a game, so I wouldn't read too much into it that he's going with the ones." It's just a pony ride, sweetie. We are not going to buy you a pony.

Manziel did not get any reps with the first-team offense. He did mount an impressive drive with the second string, however, after stalling on his first drive.

"I wouldn't make a huge deal about it, but it's progress for me," Manziel said, via WKYC's Matthew Florjancic, whose interview availability has been as strictly monitored as his scrimmage reps. "It's better than I played last year in the scrimmage. A year later, there's a lot of progress. I'm happy about it and happy about stringing some good days together."

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

Despite the impressive scrimmage, there is no quarterback controversy in Cleveland. Not even the seeds of one to water and cultivate. Josh McCown is the starter. He takes all the first-team reps in practice. Manziel takes all the second-team reps, so there is no real will he even make the final roster? controversy either. There's also little Manziel fascination among the local media, though his scrimmage made the needle flicker a bit.

There are also no Manziel Instagrams from bars, no mutterings of late-night carousing, no money signs. Fans still chant "Johnny, Johnny" in search of autographs and cheer for his best plays, but it's all supportive and subdued. Manziel has become as close to just another young backup quarterback—popular in the way young backup quarterbacks are always popular—as anyone could have imagined he would become.

McCown has much to do with that. All journeyman quarterbacks are not created equal. Brian Hoyer had four career starts and was coming off a major knee injury when he was burdened with mentoring/holding off Manziel last season. McCown turned 36 on the Fourth of July, a veteran of the custodial quarterback roadshow with stops in Tampa, Chicago, Carolina, Oakland, Detroit and Arizona on his resume. Surviving 13 NFL seasons as a spot starter takes a variety of skills, and McCown has all of them.

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"He knows the offense like the back of his hand," Hawkins said of McCown. "He's telling receivers what to do, tight ends, the O-line. He has such a presence in the huddle. It's cool to see."

"He's a leader through and through," Gabriel said. "When we're in the film room, he stops the whole film room, steps up and orchestrates the room sometimes."

Even the toughest critics are impressed.

"He's putting the ball in tough spots," safety Donte Whitner told reporters. "He's challenging us downfield. He's checking and catching us off guard before we even get out there. … I'm really excited to see what he can do firsthand."

Whitner can be accused of many things, but spouting boilerplate is not one of them.

"I like the fact that Donte gives him credit," secondary coach Jeff Hafley said after raving about McCown's ability to pick up blitzes and find open receivers. "Who's Donte going to give credit to? C'mon. If Donte's giving a guy credit, well, shoot."

McCown may be Bart Starr in the huddle and the film room, but he's still a 36-year-old with a long career as a second- and third-stringer when the time comes to push the ball more than 10 yards downfield. There are sessions when McCown distributes short passes in perfect spots and sessions when he looks like he is trying to earn cornerback Joe Haden another All-Pro selection. McCown is far from the best quarterback, but he is clearly the best Browns quarterback right now.

McCown also has more life lessons to impart to Manziel than Hoyer did; he probably has more of them to offer than Coach DeFilippo (just a year older than McCown, in his first coordinator role at any level) or quarterback coach Kevin O'Connell (30 years old, six NFL pass attempts). Is Manziel benefiting from that wisdom?

"Johnny and I talk all the time," McCown said. "I give him my thoughts on things. On different plays, and how to handle the ups and the downs.

"It's a long season, and we want to have long careers. There are going to be ebbs and flows, and you have to be able to maintain through them to be the player that you want to be."

McCown's statements are believable when he crosses the field to high-five his backup, when Manziel completes a string of sharp throws or bounces back quickly from a bad one. It takes a skeptic to point out that they also sound uncomfortably like boilerplate.

Potential and Progress

Haslam appears to enjoy the calm that has settled around Browns camp. An early offseason dustup involving Pettine, general manager Ray Farmer, some differences of opinion and a little forbidden in-game text messaging has blown over. Haslam's legal troubles seem to be behind him. The tumult of his first few seasons as an owner, with coaches and executives getting swapped out like oil filters, is also receding into the past. Haslam may have a quick-hook reputation, but he is not an advocate of change for change's sake.

"Despite what everybody reads and says, we have not at all given up on Johnny," Haslam said.

Why would the Browns give up on Manziel? Their draft investment was great, but their financial investment was modest: Four years at $8.25 million overall will not force any hands financially. Why not think of last year as Manziel's redshirt year and start the developmental clock this year? As long as he's not being Johnny Drama, there is no reason to force him to be Johnny Football. Johnny Manziel, with the beautiful arm, quick feet and a healthier mind and soul will do, at least for now.

"He has the potential to be a good football player," Haslam said. "Now, having the potential to do it and doing it are two different things."

Manziel has made a lot of progress. But there is still a long way to go. That may be the party line, but it's also the truth.

Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.