Another year "Johnny Football" is news again, as it couldn't be otherwise, after a season with all possible obstacles, barely playing, and when he played, he played poorly. With his alcohol problems, apparently already overcome after being in a rehabilitation clinic and after having completed an intensive Qb course with Jon Gruden, Johnny Manziel seems to enter the new season with the intention of competing for the Qb1 position.
So far everything seems correct, a stray sheep returns to the fold to become the guide of a Browns team that seems to be doing things right. However, all that glitters is not gold. The shadow of Jimmy Haslam is very long, it even covers the person and personality of the Cleveland General manager, Ray Farmer.
The Head Coach, Mike Pettine, is crazy about having Josh McCown as his quarterback. This way the team can put all their efforts into controlling the game time, based on their defense and establishing a strong running game, with a talented backfield with Crowell, West, and the recently drafted Duke Johnson. The visible head of the team, Jimmy Haslam, has the clear intention of making his toy, already semi-new, the franchise Qb that all teams, and above all the fans, want to have. Their own Montana, the new Dan Marino, something that is far from the reality, if it is today's Manziel we are talking about.
The franchise has been groping in the dark for years in sports, but it seems that the river is being channeled. Last year they had a regular, leaning towards good, season in some stages of the regular season. They finished 2015 with a record of 7-9 despite playing in such a tough division as the AFC North.
The last draft focused on adding weight, both on defense to stop the Le'Veon Bell, Jeremy Hill, Forsett, etc., with nose tackle Danny Shelton, and on offense with center Cameron Erving, to help the Qb and the group of running backs.
For the team to have the perfect balance, the coach must find a Qb capable of being a game manager, correct, without frills, and McCown has all that. But this is where the team's problem begins. Their General Manager requested the introduction of Manziel into the game last year, his golden boy, and this fact destabilized the team at the end of the season, in addition to an NFL sanction for interfering with the team from the box.
Well, with training camps about to begin for all teams, now the figure of Haslam appears again asking for more prominence for Manziel. Everything indicates that Josh McCown will have the starting position in the first games and this is probably the best for the team. But perhaps the insistence of the bosses will make Manziel play sooner than expected, which could set in motion the destabilization wheel of a franchise very apt for this task.
It hasn't been the dream career for good old Johnny Manziel, that young lad who shone with his eccentricities, his "money, money", the one they said was going to change the conception of football as we know it; Johnny has been, as he himself has commented, absorbed by his character.
Let's hope common sense and luck take hold of the Browns and let Manziel grow in the league, preferably learning from the bench, and that when he has the opportunity, he is in the best possible physical and mental condition and with a formed team with an established running game because, then, he will have the chance to shine and be the "Moses" that leads the Cleveland Browns to achieve great goals. Dress me slowly because I'm in a hurry...