"Johnny Football" Part II

Upon reading this, I am officially disgusted with anyone who believes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers should trade up for Johnny Manziel. As I’ve written about before, I am not sold on Manziel as a prospect who can become great and even less sold on Manziel being a QB that will help this team—or any team for that matter—win now, as Lovie Smith has stated he intends to do.

I’ve drawn comparisons between Manziel and Tim Tebow, which some have stated are unfair. From a skillset standpoint, I could somewhat agree that the comparisons are unfair, as Manziel doesn’t have the problems that plagued Tebow as a passer, like an elongated windup and terrible accuracy. However, I can see legit comparisons in the fan bases that support the two players. Both groups offered undying support for the player in question, becoming almost as maniacal as an obsessive Beyoncé fan at the thought of anyone doubting their careers or talents. (Great skit, SNL.) Both groups, when it comes to those particular players, stray away from objectivity and denounce the opinions of anyone who dares to doubt their “inevitable” success because, you know, these players are winners.

In the eyes of those people, JoeBucsFan included, Manziel is a can’t miss, once-in-a-lifetime prospect. To them, he will take the NFL by storm by showing the passing prowess of Drew Brees and the running ability of Michael Vick…and that’s highly unlikely. I’m not saying that Manziel will absolutely be a bust but, in my opinion, there is a higher probability of him busting than busting out. His instincts are to run after his first read, rarely fully going through his progressions before attempting to escape the pocket. Besides that, he has never taken a snap from under center or run anything resembling a pro style offense. Rather than acknowledging these points as valid concerns, many from the “Johnny Football” groupies claim that these are just slight problems that can be coached away. There are so many problems with making statements like that, with the first being that, if all problems could just be coached away, busts wouldn’t exist (unless they wanted to be busts and ignored coaching).

Can He Win Now?

I am not of the belief that Manziel has the skillset to step onto the field in Week 1 and take the reigns.. You’re talking about a QB who has never taken a snap from under center, never had to read defenses like he’ll be asked to do on Sundays and whose offensive scheme dictated the defensive coverage more than anything else the QB did. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe he’ll make an easy transition into the NFL (unless a team does plan on running a spread formation).

And the Pundits Say…

The public opinion on Manziel has been wid-ranging, with several draft analysts not approving of him being a franchise QB. Most recently, Mike Mayock left Manziel out of top half of his last mock draft before the big event tomorrow night. On the same day, Hall of Famer Warren Sapp said he doesn’t think Manziel is worth a top-15 pick.

The opposition says that Manziel is possibly the only QB in this class who can start immediately, citing that his style of play will not change much from the college ranks to the pros. What??? Exactly how could his style of play not change at the pro level if he’s not drafted to a team that runs a spread? That formation is what has stopped Manziel from getting killed, so how—in the NFL, where the best of the best compete and defenders are much faster and smarter than those in the SEC—will Manziel succeed without making some critical changes to his style of play?

Then, of course, you have opinions like this—those who say that drafting Manziel will be good for the Bucs because of the attention that comes along with him. Do you know what really brings attention to a team? WINNING! I couldn’t care less about Manziel’s Hollywood attitude or the circus that will inevitably follow him to whatever city he’ll be residing in after tomorrow night. The only attention I care about is that which typically comes with annual contenders…and champions.