How a Change to Johnny Manziel Would Impact the Browns Offense

On Wednesday the Cleveland Browns brass will meet and decide what happens at the quarterback position for the rest of the season. They can go with the veteran who boosted them well above expectations and has a 10-5 record as a starter or they can go with the kid flash. If they do decide to bench Brian Hoyer for Johnny Manziel then the offense will change dramatically and probably for the better.

First of all, there is obviously a downside to starting a rookie quarterback. Despite the fact that he sat for over 11 weeks and watched a very prepared quarterback, there will still be a learning curve. Starting at any point during a rookie year is essentially learning on the job and the Browns will have to live with the bumps in the road.

Manziel comes with some especially interesting bumps. He is a dangerous playmaker to the outside and can extend plays with his legs but that also presents a risk. Big plays come along with big risk and that means the conservative football the Browns have played for the better part of 12 games goes out the window.

The mediocre offensive production will most likely go out the window as well. The decision to go to Manziel in the fourth quarter of the Browns' loss against the Buffalo Bills seemed like a byproduct of the last three games. Over that span Hoyer played the three worst games of his career. Head coach Mike Pettine said, despite the big headlines that come along with this move, it is no different than any other week.

“We believe that competition is a cornerstone of what we do,” Pettine told the media on a conference call on Monday, per ESPN.com. “I said earlier in the year that quarterback would not be an exception except that we would be much more patient there. We do look at the body of work, but I think given the play recently at that position that it’s time to discuss it.”

If you believe that then I have some oceanfront property to show you in Kansas as well. Hoyer has been playing poorly since the fifth game of the season and his poor stats are a cumulative effect rather than a recent trend.

According to ProFootballFocus.com (subscription required), Hoyer is near the bottom of the NFL in nearly every category. His quarterback rating has sunk to 23rd, and his completion percentage is dead last at 28th. Both Pettine and Hoyer have said that his completion percentage was affected by the number of passes he has thrown away. That is also not the case.

Hoyer is 17th in the NFL with just 13 thrown away passes and has spiked the ball just once. Pressure is not the issue either as, according to ProFootballFocus.com, he has been under pressure on just 29.7 percent of his drop backs, which is seventh best in the NFL.

So now that we know where Hoyer struggled, let’s look at where Manziel can thrive. The Browns will need to re-establish the run no matter who is the starting quarterback, so a return to an aggressive ground game will help Manziel quite a bit.

Unlike Hoyer, however, Manziel does not need the play-action pass to be successful. Manziel has the arm and ability to make throws down the field. He also has the mobility and pocket presence to avoid pressure created when teams know for sure they will be dropping back to pass.

Hoyer is eighth in the NFL in quarterback rating on play-action passes but 27th on non-play action plays. If the Browns are unable to run the ball Hoyer is not just ineffective but actually a detriment to the offense.

The other players around Manziel would improve as well. Wide receiver Josh Gordon and Hoyer were obviously not on the same page the last two games. Hoyer targeted him 29 times and yet he has just 15 catches for 195 yards. Manziel’s arm strength and gambler attitude will allow Gordon to test defenses deep.

Too often receivers had to stop or slow down to wait for the pass on deep routes when Hoyer threw the ball. Miles Austin had that happen to him early in the game on Sunday. That won’t be a problem with Manziel whose superior arm strength was instantly noticeable when he replaced Hoyer on Sunday.

Guys like Austin and Andrew Hawkins will have more room underneath with a legitimate threat of the ball being thrown over the defense’s heads on every play. Hoyer had a very good completion percentage on deep balls this season but almost every single one of them was because of the play action. Obviously that has not been working as of late.

The run game, which will probably feature a heavy dose of Isaiah Crowell after Terrance West’s costly fumble Sunday, should improve around Manziel as well. With Hoyer, defenses were stacking the box and taking away the run. They knew if they pushed the Browns out of play action then Hoyer would not be able to beat them.

Manziel does not need play action. More importantly, the defense cannot focus on the inside runs which are such a huge part of the Browns rushing game. If they pay too much attention in between the tackles then Manziel can run naked bootlegs to the outside with his speed and make them pay.

Finally, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan will probably have to limit some of the things in the playbook but will be able to expand others. Manziel has seen limited snaps in practice and none until Sunday during games so more complex reads down the field will have to be reigned in for the time being.

The positive is that with Manziel’s athletic ability Shanahan can be much more creative with the play calls. Expect to see more rollout type passes and for Shanahan to get Manziel into space and then let him decide the best way to get yards. It won’t always be as a runner, either. People label Manziel as a run-first quarterback too often when that was not the case at the collegiate level.

He is a quarterback who has the unique ability to run and make a play with his legs if he cannot find a read. Make no mistake, that will happen more than the coaches would like in the first few games but the more comfortable Manziel becomes, the longer he will remain in the pocket.

If the Browns make the right move and hand the keys over to Manziel then all of a sudden they have an offense that coordinators need to fear. They won’t be a one-trick pony anymore. They very well could end up being an efficient scoring machine; the exact thing that has been missing since opponents figured out that stopping the run made Hoyer look like a backup quarterback in a starter's role.