Manziel believes Mayfield “is in a better situation” than he was

When the Cleveland Browns selected Johnny Manziel in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft, the quarterback was thrown into a tough situation. During his rookie season, the starting quarterback, Josh McCown, was just 1-7. With a fan base starved of not only a winning football team but also a franchise quarterback, the Dawg Pound was ready for anyone to come in and prove that they could be that guy. McCown was a veteran who already proved who he was, so it was time for Manziel.

Later that season, he was thrown into the fire for the first time as the starting quarterback. We all know how his short two-year stint in the NFL went before he was finally waived by the Browns in early March 2016. Much has been made about Manziel’s off-the-field issues and even his lack of preparedness, which even he has admitted to and learn from, but now that he’s in the Canadian Football League, the former Browns quarterback hopes that Mayfield can succeed and be the franchise quarterback many wish (and thought) Manziel could have been.

“I feel like Baker’s in a better situation having a vet quarterback in there in Tyrod (Taylor),” Manziel, who signed on Saturday with the Hamilton Tigercats of the Canadian Football League told The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday, according to cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.”There’s not pressure on him to come in and start day one and I think he’s going into it and he’s going to learn from the vets.”

Manziel isn’t wrong. Taylor has proven that he can be a legitimate quarterback in the NFL and lead his team to the playoffs, just like he did in 2017 with the Buffalo Bills. Although Mayfield may have been the No. 1 overall pick, there’s no pressure on either him or the coaching staff to play him immediately because of the quarterbacks that are currently on the roster.

Taylor is one of the best quarterbacks to don a Browns jersey since 1999. It gives the rookie an opportunity to both learn and develop while being taught by two veterans like Taylor and Drew Stanton. During practice, both veterans can teach Mayfield the ropes of being a starting quarterback in the NFL; during games, Stanton can be the rookie’s mentor while Taylor is on the field. It’s a scenario that Manziel seems sort of jealous of Mayfield for.

Whether it’s planting the flag on The Horseshoe’s 50-yard line after taking down Ohio State last fall or a number of other things, Mayfield has an edge to him that can turn plenty of people off. But that edge also forces others to realize that he is just confident and has a cocky edge to him. While over-the-top cockiness can be a negative, a little cockiness is definitely a good thing. You need that in order to lead a team and continue to be successful. Manziel’s cockiness got the best of him, but Mayfield may use his to his advantage. His competitiveness will allow him to always want to improve and never be satisfied, along with (hopefully) being a positive influence and voice in the locker room as well. Mayfield must make sure he make football his top priority though, especially if he wants to succeed.

“Baker’s got the fire, Baker’s got the spark, and you know, I think he’ll do alright,” said Manziel about the rookie. “But don’t let the pressure of everything else that goes on get to you. That would be my one advice: just go out and make football the main thing and go out and play like he’s done for the last five years.”

“If I made football the main thing,” he said. “If I only focused on football and put every bit of time (into it). I can catch up on sleep when camp’s over. If I would’ve done things like that to where ‘hey I don’t understand things all the way, sit it in there and learn it until you do understand it.  Don’t leave. There’s no point to do anything else.”

Instead of putting football atop his list of importance, Manziel instead chose to party and travel when he could have been studying the game, the playbook, or improving as a quarterback. He hopes Mayfield doesn’t do the same thing that he regrets.

“There’s no trips, there’s no luxury of anything,” he said. “This game’s hard and the people who are good at this game have put in countless, countless hours and that translates…..The guys that go out and play at a high level, it’s because they’ve gone out and done what they’ve needed to do in the week before in the time that other people aren’t working like that.”

So far, Mayfield seems to be doing just that. With OTAs currently going on, many reports have stated that the rookie gunslinger is one of the first players in the facility and one of the last to leave. He’s not only leading by example, but that also shows that he wants to be the best player he can possibly be and is doing everything possible in order to be successful.

One thing that Manziel believes could hurt Mayfield is the fact that the rookie will never be able to have future Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas blocking his blind side. Not only did he know that he had one of the best left tackles to ever put on a football helmet, but Manziel was able to learn from Thomas as well. Instead, the former Browns quarterback hopes the Oklahoma standout uses the talent in the wide receiver room to learn from and pick their brains.

“It hurts when you don’t have a guy like Joe Thomas on the o-line because once I started to get to know Joe and started to pick his brain, I really started to learn a lot of stuff,” said Manziel. “That guy is a legend, but (Mayfield) has good people around him, he’s got a good group of receivers, and trust in those guys that they have around him. That would be my advice to him.”

Manziel will likely never be a personal mentor to Mayfield, but there’s thing the rookie can learn from the former Texas A&M standout. As long as Mayfield puts football atop his list of priorities, continues to improve his game, learns from the veterans in the Browns’ quarterback room, and uses his competitiveness edge and cockiness to his advantage, the sky is the limit for the No. 1 pick. Maybe, just maybe, he can be Cleveland’s savior and the franchise quarterback the Browns have seemingly been in search of since 1999. The Dawg Pound hopes he is, and Manziel seems to hope he is as well.

The full interview with Manziel on the Dan Patrick Show can be seen below.