Ex-Browns CEO: Johnny Manziel wasn't on board three months before 2014 NFL Draft
Joe Banner says the Browns had Manziel off their board at the time he was fired
By
Will Brinson
•
3 min read
With the 2017 NFL Draft fast approaching, it's always fascinating to look back at previous drafts and wonder about the mistakes made by various teams when it comes to personnel evaluation. Colleague Ryan Wilson looked back at each team's biggest bust and oddly enough Johnny Manziel, currently out of football after being taken by the Browns No. 22 overall in 2014, did not make the list.
And he almost didn't make the Browns list on the night of the draft, either. According to former Browns CEO Joe Banner, who appeared on Albert Breer's The MMQB podcast last week, Manziel was not on the Browns draft board at the time Banner was let go by the team.
"To be completely candid, at that point he wasn't on the board," Banner said. "I should be careful in saying this, because we had people in the building who liked Manziel. ... Our attitude at that point was we weren't comfortable with the risks that came with Johnny and we weren't going to pick him. So we didn't really have him stacked at that point."
Banner noted that he left "in February" a good "60 days or 80 days" before the draft and "something changed dramatically" in that period of time because the Browns were not considering Manziel with either of their two picks as they progressed through the draft process.
"Frankly when I left, we were concerned about his talent," Banner said. "We weren't sure he was that accurate, we weren't sure he could stay healthy and we weren't completely sold on the mental acumen part of it. And then of course there were off-field issues we were aware of that were concerning.
"Something changed dramatically in the 60 days or 80 days from the time I left until the time they picked him."
Owner Jimmy Haslam ousted Banner and GM Mike Lombardi in the middle of February following the completion of the 2013 season and promoted Ray Farmer to GM. It was, at the time, just the latest in a long line of times the Browns mashed the reset button with the front office.
According to Banner, the Browns had Teddy Bridgewater as their No. 1 quarterback on the board (and Derek Carr No. 2) at the time that he and Lombardi were let go.
"At the time I left, we had Bridgewater rated No. 1 and Carr rated No. 2," Banner said. "We didn't do any of the individual workouts or interviews ... but those were the top two guys on our board when I left."
That shouldn't be taken as a hindsight situation, because at the time it was understood that the Browns invested heavily into analytics that pointed to Bridgewater as the top option in the class.
Additionally, Banner pointed out that the Browns liked but did not love Jimmy Garoppolo, which checks out with the report that then-OC Kyle Shanahan was a huge fan of both Garappolo and Carr.
"We liked Garoppolo but didn't love Garoppolo," Banner said. "We had phenomenal intangible grades on him. We had him as one of the smartest, most instinctive, intuitive quarterbacks to come out in a while. But we weren't totally thrilled about the arm strength and a few other things there."
According to Banner, Garoppolo would have been under consideration in the second or third round if he had been making the selections for the Browns.
Ultimately the Browns decided to ignore that expensive advice for the opinion of a random guy in the streets. It was clear how much influence ownership had on the decision. Things did not end well, and the Browns once again find themselves in the position of looking for a quarterback in this year's draft.
It's very possible that, once again, ownership gets involved and, once again, a trade up for a beloved option happens. Hopefully things finally go the Browns way.
