We already knew Merril Hoge was not a fan of Johnny Manziel. Prior to the draft, Hoge said Manziel has “bust written all over him” and that he has no pocket presence or awareness. Now that we have seen Manziel play in the NFL, Hoge is even more down on Johnny Football.
Hoge appeared on 102.5 WDVE with Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show on Wednesday and ripped Manziel to shreds. The ESPN analyst referred to Manziel as a “juvenile punk” and said he has no business playing in the NFL right now.
“There is nothing that he does that transitions to the NFL,” Hoge said. “There’s not one skillset he has that you say, ‘Gosh, he’s a first rounder…’ This guy has no business playing. If they put him in, quite honestly, it’s not helping their chances to win. It’s jeopardizing their chances to win.
“He has no business being on the field right now.”
Hoge repeatedly pointed out that the Browns have given Manziel an “elementary” playbook to work with and he still hasn’t been able to handle it. He also said that Manziel infuriated coaches around the league when word surfaced that he texted the Browns telling them to draft him so they can “wreck this league” together.
“When he texted the Browns and said, ‘Let’s wreck this league,’ that didn’t just burn players — it infuriates coaches,” said Hoge. “Coaches are like, ‘Really?’ Peyton Manning hasn’t wrecked this league. (Aaron) Rodgers, Adrian Peterson … nobody wrecks this league. This league is a hard league to play in.”
Hoge, a former NFL running back, then compared Manziel to Tim Tebow.
“This will be the saddest, quickest ending we have seen in quite some time. It’ll be like a Tim Tebow (situation).”
While we don’t always agree with his analysis, it should be noted that Hoge has a pretty good track record of spotting busts over the past few years. He was highly criticial of Tebow back in 2012, and we all know how Timmy is doing at the moment. He also ripped Matt Barkley, who has struggled to keep his backup job with the Eagles.
Manziel is going to get his chances with the Browns. He probably has to learn to run less and pass the ball more accurately from the pocket, but we’re obviously not going to write him off. Apparently Hoge is.
