Dansby on Manziel rehab: 'It's going to make him a better man'
Good news: Johnny Manziel, the Browns' 2014 first-round pick, was released from rehab last week. Bad news: It's still unclear what role -- if any -- he may have in Cleveland
By
Ryan Wilson
•
3 min read
Good news: Johnny Manziel, the Browns' 2014 first-round pick, was released from rehab last week.
Bad news: It's still unclear what role -- if any -- he may have in Cleveland. In fact, the pre-draft speculation (obfuscation) has the team trading up for Marcus Mariota or trading a draft pick for Sam Bradford. Either way is bad news for Manziel, NFL quarterback.
Whatever happens, his teammates say Manziel did the right thing by going to treatment.
“I just knew it was distracting his game,” linebacker Karlos Dansby said Tuesday, according to the Akron Beacon Journal's Nate Urlich. “It wasn’t allowing him to be himself out on the field. It wasn’t allowing him to express himself the way we all have seen him play at the collegiate level. Whatever he was dealing with was suppressing him. So him being able to check himself in and try to get that relief, I think it was huge. ...
“It took a lot for him to take that step, and for him to make that step shows that he’s maturing a lot as a man,” Dansby continued. “And he’s growing as a person. I’m anxious to see what he does and how he comes out. I know it’s going to make him a better man, and that’s all I’m worried about is him being a better man at the end of the day. Everything else will take care of itself.”
Earlier this month, left tackle Joe Thomas said that Manziel had a lot of work to do to earn the trust and respect of his teammates.
On Tuesday, Thomas clarified those remarks.
“I don’t know if I said he lost my trust, but I think it will be important for him when he comes back to prove to the team, to everybody in the organization that football is the most important thing in his life and he is willing to commit to it and make it the most important thing in his life,” the Pro Bowl tackle said. “To be a successful NFL quarterback, that’s what you have to do. There was some doubt based on what he did last year if football was the most important thing.
“He’s made excellent strides already in the offseason kind of setting himself up. What people do away from the building and in the offseason doesn’t really matter in the end. It’s matters about showing up, practicing hard, taking the film study seriously, committing yourself to the meetings and playing on Sundays. The offseason stuff, in the end, doesn’t really matter.”
Meanwhile, safety Donte Whitner didn't mince words: Manziel does, in fact, need to earn the trust of the locker room -- but with the full understanding that the locker room has his back.
“I would say yes to that,” Whitner said. “I think he would say yes to that, but the thing is we commend him for what he did. Nobody knew the actual things that were going on in his life except him and his family, so I commend him.
“To be so young and take that initiative and do what he did, it can only help him as a person, first and foremost, and then, as a football player. I believe that he’ll come in, he’ll earn our trust back. He’s that type of guy. He’ll have to compete for his job, but I believe he’ll be up for that challenge. We’ll welcome him back with open arms.”
The Browns signed veteran journeyman Josh McCown this offseason -- presumably to mentor Manziel, but also to play if needed. Of course, that becomes moot if the team ends up with Mariota or Bradford. A development that would put Manziel on the Browns' first-round QB scrap heap alongside Brandon Weeden and Brady Quinn.
