Cleveland Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer did not see Johnny Manziel’s trip to rehab coming.
Hoyer, who lost his job to Manziel only to watch the rookie embarrass himself and then suffer a season-ending injury, said over the weekend that he was “shocked” to hear that Manziel checked himself into a treatment program.
“You spend a lot of hours together (and) I never thought it would be anywhere close to where he’s at now,” Hoyer said, per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I don’t know the situation. We had a group message amongst the quarterbacks and stuff. Even up to a few weeks ago Johnny was a part of that and then I found the news out probably the same day all of you did. I was kind of shocked about it.”
Hoyer praised Manziel for making a “mature” decision that could potentially get the rookie’s career back on track.
“If he decided that’s what he needs, I think that’s a big step and very mature of him to be able to do that,” he added. “For all that’s surrounding him — the media, the hype, all that stuff — for him to be able to take those steps, I think that shows he cares about himself and if you read the statement his family, his teammates and the Cleveland Browns, I wish him the best.”
Hoyer is set to become an unrestricted free agent on March 10, and many felt he would be all but certain to leave the Browns as they look to turn things over to Manziel. Given some of the recent reports we have heard about Manziel and the fact that he is in rehab, Cleveland’s quarterback situation remains as muddled as ever.
When asked about a report from during the season that indicated Hoyer would not re-sign with the Browns if Manziel was still there, Hoyer issued another denial.
“(Battling for the QB job is) something I’ve already done once,” Hoyer said. “I’m not afraid of doing it twice. For me, I’ve never shied away from any competition, whether it was here or whether it was in New England to fight for the backup job or wherever it may be. Like I said, that will all go into consideration for when I make that decision, but it’s not something that’s going to keep me from staying here. I know that that’s been put out there that I won’t come back here if Johnny’s here. That’s not true.”
Hoyer didn’t play well down the stretch, so there aren’t going to be many — if any — teams that would sign him and hand him a starting job. We all know at one point that Manziel thought he could do Hoyer’s job better than Hoyer could (here is proof), but that didn’t work out for the former Texas A&M star. If Hoyer re-signs in Cleveland, there will likely be another open competition.
