I don't watch a lot of college football. What do you guys think about Johnny Manziel? Can he succeed in the NFL?
I don't watch much college football eather, but I did see some of the bowl game and I didn't like what I saw too much. He runs a lot and he has two of the best tackles protecting him when he does throw. I'd have to watch more of him though.
Read something during the week comparing him to Tebow as a prospect. Not watched him play so cannot add comment.
Johnny Manziel vs Alabama 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykxRc-kSH74 The only QB to *beat* Alabama in the last two seasons. LSU won by totally shutting down the Crimson Tide offense. He's a freshman. He's probably going to be the 1 pick in 2015.
Ah, commit date was Feb 2011. You're right. It would be unusual though for a QB to enter the NFL as a red-shirt sophomore. I guess it's possible.
I saw him play high school ball and figured he'd make a very good college player, but never thought he'd be this good. Problem with his prospect at the NFL level is his size. Sites list him at a very generous 6'1". In person, he looks shorter than 6'0". He'd never be able to see over the average NFL O-line. Fun player to watch, though.
He moves around so much that I think his height is not the defining quality it otherwise would be. The reason Drew Brees can play in the NFL is that the definition of pocket is much more generous for him than it is for most other QB's. He's not a huge scrambler but he moves around and sets up in places that are not normal, like 9 yards behind an offensive tackle on a deep pattern. If Manziel loses his mobility then he's toast because he isn't going to be able to take a 3 step drop and make the quick throws over the pit. If he stays as mobile and elusive as he is, well then the sky's the limit for him. He's got moves that would have made Barry Sanders blush.
We'll see how Manziel's passing game progresses. I know a lot of people saw limited games from him, but A&M is local and he's a local boy, so I saw most of his games. He looked very good in the final few games, but his passing game wasn't stellar throughout the year. He was almost the sole reason they lost to LSU. Lots of ducks in that game. If he is going to be an NFL prospect at QB with the type of game he plays, he will benefit highly from playing 4 years at TAMU. If he survives without getting his legs turned to spaghetti.
He definitely needs at least two more years to refine his passing game. I don't see him coming out next year because I don't think he's a top 10 pick in that scenario even if he improves a bit on this year. Watch the Alabama game. That is a strong and fairly disciplined defense and yet he beat them anyway. He didn't dominate them the way he dominated some teams with his legs because the Alabama defenders maintained their lanes in the rush and so they got him down fairly often on the planned draws.
He's a better version of Teblow He will be a average starter in the NFL but Bridgewater is the man in 2014
I did watch the Alabama game. His box score stats look pretty impressive when you take into account the defense he was facing, but that was dink-and-dunk all day long with a handful of exceptions. For his age, he's a solid game manager. Even with his legs, he'll need to be a lot more than that against better defenses than the SEC if he's going to make it in the pros. He has a ton of potential, and he's going to need to live up to every bit of it because of his size. But so far, he's doing pretty darn well in that department. We'll see.